windsor

i've been pretty terrible at posting things from my trip in greece. last week was really stressful- moving my house, taking days off work to watch my niece, finishing two papers that i should have written earlier this month.. luckily those things are done now, for the most part.

i'm currently in windsor, with david and kyle and melanie. we came last year and this may become an "end of summer vacation" tradition for us. they charge a buttload for internet, but i guess david's mom paid for some while she was here a few months ago; but now i can only use the internet on david's computer. aka... i can't post any photos to catch up writing about greece.

i did bring supplies to scrapbook, but of course i don't have pictures printed, and i can't order prints online because i can't upload them from my computer. i think i may end up scrapbooking in bed after i get my ACL surgery on the 8th.

there isn't much to do here, which is maybe why people come. we've been hanging out and playing games. i think david and kyle are going to go fishing sometime. and, just because i hate posting without photos, here is one of the timeshare we're at that i found on the internet.


please don't sue me.

Catching Up (Sparta)

Sparta

I wasn't really sure what to expect going to Sparta. If anything, the only appeal Sparta really had to me was 1- my elementary school mascot was the Sharp Park Spartan and

2- the movie 300, of course. when we were all asleep on the bus to Sparta, one of my professors woke us up yelling "THIS IS SPARTAAAA" as we got to the city.

The first and only site we had come to see was the Sanctuary of Artemis.

It was cool being there, knowing that it was the Sanctuary of Artemis,

but this is what it looked like:

We did hear a pretty cool story though. As you see in the movie 300, Spartan men are trained from a very young age to become hoplite warriors. When they were seven years old, they were taken from their homes and brought to a sort of "military" school where they were toughened up. Among the things they had to endure, they were only given one cloak/robe thing to wear all year, they were underfed so they would be "resourceful" and find/steal/kill their food, and they were forced to build their own beds.

There were also "athletic" competitions, one of which consisted of the boy being whipped. The longer he endured it without passing out or quitting, he was rewarded and given top honors in that category.

One of my professors, Professor Philips, told us that when he was in college and came to Sparta, he and his friend wondered what the flogging was like so they snuck into the Sanctuary of Artemis one night and whipped each other with tree branches.

I am not making this up.

After the Sanctuary we tried to go the Sparta Museum, but it was closed.

I saw this in a store I walked into :)

Leonidas

Taking advantage of the 300 publicity

While we were at the Sanctuary of Artemis, a man walked in our direction and our professors were concerned that the gypsy would bother us for money. Turns out the gypsy camp was right over there.

That night, two of my friends (Chris and Matt) decided that they wanted to find the gypsy camp. My other friends and I (Kacy and Danny) tried to tell them that gypsy are not really friendly. They aren't like Esmerelda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame- they try to find money and food anyway that they can- often in unfriendly ways. But they insisted on finding the camp so we went along with them.

We ended up in scary dark alleys, terrified (at least I was) that something horrible was going to happen. We somehow found the gypsy camp area but because Kacy, Danny and I refused to go with them, Chris and Matt said they would walk us back to the hotel and come back themselves later. While we were trying to find our way back, Kacy found a tractor parked on the side of the street and decided to get on it. As she's climbing up, we hear woman scream "GET OFF, GET OFF RIGHT NOW!!" so we all freak out and Matt yells, "RUNNNN!!" and everyone starts going but I yell "I CAN'TTT!!!" (because of the ACL) and luckily Chris comes back so I'm not abandoned, but that was not a happy moment in my life.

We finally make it back to a familiar spot, and get back to the hotel. And this photo, though slightlyveryreally vulgar, is how we found ourselves at the end of the night.

Sneak Peak

since this is my travel blog, i thought that you should see this photo before i post it on facebook.


once you dock at santorini, the only way to get to the top is either 1- gandola, 2- donkey 3- walk with the donkeys. i, of course, chose option #2 and that is how this picture came into being. of the 4 of us who were exploring together, i got on my donkey last, but my donkey was competitive or something because (s)he hauled ass up that mountain. it was terrifying and fun at the same time. terrifying when the donkey always kept closest to the edge of the walls so i felt like i'd fall of the cliff, and fun all around. thank you, dear donkey, for getting me up there!

Catching Up (Nauplion)

Nauplion

i think that one of the reasons nauplion was my favorite city was because it was my first look at greece without athens. we were at a port, it wasn't dirty, and it was beautiful just being there.

that being said, one of the first things the girls and i saw when
we went exploring was this gigantic ship.

walking down a little further,
i guess this might be their "boardwalk"

dozens of cute little ships docked alongside

beautiful, clear, blue water

one night, my friend chris and i decided to explore the town and get away from the drunkies for a little while. the first thing we went to was this carnival. we went on the ride that i'm pictured with.. and we were the only two people (besides workers) there. i picked this ride, which was actually really fun.

chris picked this game,
which we both sucked at.

our second day there, hadley and i decided to rent bikes and ride around the city. well, originally we wanted vespa's but we didn't have international licenses so we just got bikes.

biking out onto the pier

we found a cute little playground

we biked along most of the city, i think, and decided to see how far we could go past the boardwalk. when we explored, we found this cliff-side path and got to ride next to the ocean.

i guess this post is mostly pictures.. i don't have a lot of stories to tell but nauplion was the most beautiful city to me. while we were here our class took a field trip to the mycenae and epidauros ruins (which i might post later), but for the mean time, i'm just going to try to post at all since i'm sucking at it so much.

i already uploaded photos from one night out in nauplion where i tested my night photography, so i guess my next update will be... SPARTA. (<- lame attempt at emphasizing sparta, even though it wasn't a very interesting city..)

Catching Up (Athens)

Athens

well, now that i am back home i am feeling the guilt of sucking at posting during my trip. in attempts to alleviate this feeling, i'm going to post photos (and some stories) now. i uploaded some photos to facebook, but it's sort of hard to tell stories there so... i'm going to try here.

our first class field trip to the athens archaeological museum.
[i suck at self-photos].

this is the "mask of agamemnon," that we learned about during our first lecture. a german millionaire named heinrich schliemann was obsessed with the trojan war and spent tons of money trying to find proof that it occured. at the site of mycenae, in grave circle a, he claims to have found this, which he identifies as the "mask of agamemnon," but it's slightly unconvincing because 1- its condition was too preserved to be believable 2- the mask's mustache is almost identical to mr. schliemann's himself.

boar's tusk helmet, such as the ones mentioned in the iliad and the odyssey :)

artemisium zeus, made of bronze and completely free standing.

i have to be honest and say that Athens was not my favorite city. i really loved the contrast of the ancient acropolis to the modern city, but after you get over the splendor of the parthenon, athens is just dirty. there was a small area, however, that was quaint though touristy- called the plaka. the photo above was an entry way from the hill of the muses down into the plaka.


while walking down this entry way, i saw this written on the wall. even though i've taken 2 years of ancient greek, it is pretty much nothing like modern greek. luckily, i happened to know these two words on the spot to appreciate how wonderful this is. i think i'd enjoy graffiti much more if all of it said "i love you very much."

when the girls and i finally made it to the center of the plaka we were starving and just looking for some place to eat. as we were passing this restaurant, this man (pictured above) says to us, "kumusta ka?" which is tagalog means "hello, how are you?" of the girls in our small group, justine, jamie and i are filipino and hearing this we were slightly shocked that a greek restaurant owner knew taglog.

after talking to him further, we found out that his grandfather was filipino so he was a quarter pinoy and he visited the philippines often growing up. along with tagalog, he also knew "English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Arabic, Portuguese... and a little Greek." he said he learned most of the languages going to a private school when he was younger and once you learn a few languages, all the others come easily. he also takes 4 months of vacation every year during low season and travels the world. amazing, right?

he also gave us free drinks because we were filipino :)

who needs urban outfitters when you have the plaka to rip you off?
(all of these were 30-60 euro a pair)

not much of a story here, just some really nice paintings up for sale along the street.

stray cat.
one very large post to come dedicated to the strays of greece.

i know this athens post doesn't have the parthenon or any of the ancient acropolis here yet, but i'm trying to go in chronological order of my trip. so.. up next, nauplion!