Hi friends!! Soo…Despite that it’s been over a month (whoops) since I’ve updated you all on my adventures, I can assure you I’ve been telling myself I’d sit down and blog for quite a few weeks now – so at least you can all have peace of mind at the fact that despite my insanely hectic life, I still kept blogging in mind? Haha. Anyway, needless to say (the title of my last entry had it right!) time is flying by over here and I’ve been a tad bit on the busy side for quite a few weeks now. In fact, this is the first weekend I haven’t been travelling and/or entertaining family and friends visiting Rome since September - yes that means I’ve been travelling or entertaining for the last 6 weeks straight…crazy! I didn't know that such an unstable lifestyle could start to feel so normal, I guess us humans are better at adapting than we think :)
Where to begin…well right after I last blogged, my study abroad program (ISA) took us south of Rome to the seaside town Sorrento, the island Capri, and to Pompeii for a 3-day weekend excursion (I posted pictures of the trip online – see the link on the left column!). Let’s just say I knew it would be a good weekend when the bus trip alone provided enough spectacular scenery to keep me smiling for days. Getting out of Rome for 72 hours of bonding time with our program leaders and fellow students was much needed and based off the fact that the bus ride back was probably 5 times louder than going there – I think it’s safe to say that we definitely returned to Rome as a much more tight-knit group. The trip itself was a blast. Sorrento was like a more populated and even more scenic version of the Cinque Terre (think 300 ft. rock cliffs topped will palm trees meets turquoise water…not bad). While the weather wasn’t the greatest (and actually left me with a really fun illness for the next week or so) we spent all day everyday taking it all in as we shopped the free samples at the Limoncello (a dessert liqueur famous in Southern Italy) shops lining the streets of Sorrento, took a ferry for the day to the island Capri, rode a chair-lift to the top of Mount Solaro, toured the ruins of Pompeii (with a tour guide that seemed more focused on telling us about the ancient whore houses than anything else? Haha), and filled the local Karaoke bar each night with our group of 40 Americans (I think the Italians were in awe of our knowledge of the lyrics to any Brittany Spears or Backstreet Boys song they threw at us). Needless to say, it was a pretty phenomenal trip ☺
The next weekend I stayed in Rome eagerly awaiting the arrival of my parents that Saturday morning! While they were only in Rome for a day or so before heading up to Tuscany for a weeklong Rick Steve’s tour of Florence, it was a much appreciated day of daughter-parent bonding as I excitedly showed them what my life in Rome is like (well, when they weren’t sleeping to recover from that oh-so-fun jet lag ☺). I can honestly say that when I met them at the train station that morning, I was beyond ecstatic. It’s not that I haven’t been away from home for this long before, but living in another country and attempting to embrace another culture makes you really, really grateful for tastes of home ☺ And I'm especially grateful and still amazed at the fact that they could come visit me while I live in another country and see everything that I tell them about my life here for themselves! It was REALLY cool to see their reactions and perspectives to my life here since they know me so well but could sort of come in and make their outsider observations about how much I've adapted to life here, how much Italian I really am capable of speaking or more importantly understanding, etc. - It left me realizing just how much I have changed, or not so much changed as grown, during my time here as well as feeling very, very loved :)
My parents spent the week in Florence and in the meantime I had visitors of my own. Two of my best friends from DU – Faven and Kendra – both of whom are studying in Vienna, Austria, came to visit me for the weekend (which worked out perfectly since ALL of my roommates were travelling for the weekend). Of course not only did the first Roman transportation strike of the fall have to occur the day Faven and Kendra were attempting to get from the train station to my apartment, but it poured rain all day as we walked with a group of about 15 DU kids either studying in or visiting Rome across the city attempting to see the sights in the absence of all forms of public transportation. Despite all of the factors that could have made it a completely miserable day, it was spectacular – finally reuniting and catching up on the last 3 months of our lives kept Faven, Kendra, and I more than content all day. The next day we got up early to head to the train station - - only to find that our bus would break down in the middle of the street and we’d end up barely catching our train to meet my parents in the Tuscan town Orvieto, after running down the streets of Rome in desperate (yet somehow successful) attempts to find another bus line that I wasn’t sure actually existed to the station…but once again, my luck continued (knock on wood) and we made it to the train station with a solid 8 minutes to find our train ☺ So off we went to Orvieto where we spent the day with my parents being fed delicious food (a major benefit of parents ☺)and exploring a beautiful and seemingly undiscovered Italian town perched on the cliffs of a hill and surrounded by rolling hills that were green enough to make us think we’d somehow travelled all the way to Ireland. After a long day exploring we made it back to Rome, checked my parents into their hotel, and somehow managed to meet up with our DU friends at a bar in the city center and still wake up early the next morning to meet up with my well-rested parents to head to Vatican City and tour St. Peter’s Basilica. Faven and Kendra left that evening, leaving me suddenly missing my DU friends and all the feelings of the normalcy of life in Denver that seeing them brought back -- a small taste of home that I was so grateful for but at the same time felt like it was torn away too quickly. (Although I've recently felt as though I've been sort of slapped in the face at the fact that I'll be home in a month!! So I guess reuniting with everyone in Denver isn't as far away as I'd been feeling :)
I spent that week balancing going to class and spending time with my parents who were touring Rome for the week before jetting off with them to the Amalfi Coast for a long weekend before I came back to school to take midterms and they headed back home. Spending the weekend with them was so nice. Not only was the weather ridiculously warm for late October (or at least what I know as late October weather..), but I got to be fed well all weekend as we enjoyed the beach scenery and touring the towns south of Sorrento. Unfortunately Monday had to come and I was sad to see them go home while I had to take midterms, but I only had 3 days to wait before Lucy came to visit for my fall break! (I know right, I guess you could say we’re a pretty tight-knit family ☺)
Soo after a rough 3 days of actually studying (something I don’t do too much of here…) I was SO excited to see Lucy arrive in Rome! Even if she did arrive on the main day of the Italian riots about the newly implemented education laws (which were not received well by the general public during a time of a struggling Italian economy..) - - riots big enough to shut down all buses to the train station (where I was supposed to be meeting Lucy) as well as the tram line…leaving me standing in the middle of Viale Trastevere begging a group of Italian police officers for help getting to the train station – and sure enough they directed me to our neighborhood’s local train station where I could catch a train to the station where Lucy was waiting…a process that got me to her only like an hour late?! Whoops. Anyway, we spent the evening happily reuniting during some much needed sisterly bonding time before she passed out early from jet lag and I ran off to my soccer game against our rivals – John Cabot University – the other American school in Rome – which we not only won 3-1 but I scored our second goal! The next morning (Halloween!) I got up to (only a little bit frantically) finish packing before we left for the train station en route for a very fun, and very, very memorable adventure to Croatia for the week…☺
(Croatia + my 21st Birthday = to be continued in their own blog entry…)
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Where's the pause button?!
I’m rather alarmed to announce that this past Thursday was the 5-week mark for how long I’ve been in Europe, and I’ll be the first to admit that have absolutely no idea how 5 weeks could’ve possible passed so quickly. It feels like I spent so many months just preparing to go abroad; between deciding on a country, a school, applying, waiting for an acceptance letter, going through pre-departure orientation and paperwork, applying for my Italian visa, booking flights, choosing classes…the steps to get here seemed endless. Now I’m not only finally here in Italy but I’ve been in classes for 3 weeks, my parents arrive in 2 weeks, and I have nearly every weekend through when I leave to go home in December planned with travel or the arrival of family and friends. Throughout the many months of preparation to go abroad, the very thought of living in another country for 4 whole months seemed like an eternity. Even a couple of weeks ago, school had just started and the idea of living here in Rome until Christmas and being in class for a whole semester rather than a 10-week quarter at DU made it feel like I’d be here forever. But between my 3-day school weeks packed full of classes, homework, and soccer practice – and my weekends that are spent travelling to the far reaches of Italy – time is moving faster than ever and I seem to find myself searching for a pause button in a desperate attempt to stop time just long enough for me to reflect on the experiences I’ve had thus far.
Now that I’ve gained some sense of direction for the sprawling city of Rome and figured out where I live in relation to major landmarks, etc. I’m becoming more and more comfortable with spending my time between classes wandering the city. Without a lot of homework (at least not in relation to being a biology major at DU…) I have far more spare time than I seem to know what to do with. So during breaks between my classes I tend to stop at one of the two open-air markets to get some fruit and then off I go – I just pick a direction and start walking. I can only do this for a couple of hours because by that time it’s the siesta part of the afternoon and everything closes, but it’s forced me to learn the city better and has allowed me to discover tons of interesting sites, potential running paths, stores, markets, and of course – gelato shops. The rest of my school week, although I’m not sure I can even call it that since it’s only 3 days long, is consumed by soccer practice and spending time with friends. My friends and I have started taking turns cooking dinners for each other in our apartments, so we usually gather at someone’s place 2-3 nights per week and enjoy attempting random Italian recipes – knowing that if it doesn’t turn out we can always resort to eating gelato for dinner ☺ Soccer is still in Italian and thus incredibly disorienting, but overall it is going really well as I’ve been named one of our two starting offensive players and am looking forward to our playing in a tournament of Roman Universities in a couple of weeks.
My first couple of weekends in Rome have been…incredible. I wasn’t expecting to get to do as much travelling as I have been with school starting, but it’s been really easy to do homework during the week or on the train, etc. so each weekend I’ve been able to jet off to some party of Italy. Our first weekend, some friends and I took a day-trip to Naples, about a 2-hour train ride south of Rome and the birthplace of pizza! Let’s just say that when guidebooks suggest you do a day-trip to Naples rather than sleep there, I’d listen to them. Naples was…definitely just as dirty and seemingly just as crime-filled as all of the books make it out to be. Given that I spent the day there with 3 friends from NYC/New Jersey (they’re a little more street savvy than those of us who grew up in suburbia), I felt pretty safe ☺ Haha. Given the amount of sketchy characters roaming the streets and the trash blowing around my feet, we had an excellent day. Our first stop (this shouldn’t be a surprise to those of you who know how food-motivated I am ☺..) was a pizzeria. Not just any pizzeria, Pizzeria Michaela – made famous not only by Rick Steves but by the author of my new favorite book - Eat, Pray, Love. After navigating to the pizzeria only to find that there was a mob of hungry Italians winding down the street just waiting for enough tables to clear for them to even get into the restaurant, we knew that it was going to be some good pizza. And sure enough, we were not disappointed. They only served three types of pizza – marinara, margherita, and magherita with extra buffalo mozzarella cheese – plus beer or coke. Oh and they expect each customer to consume an entire pizza individually, a task that seemed daunting only until we tasted the pizza and realized that there was no way anyone could only eat a slice or two. After stuffing ourselves with the most amazing bubbly-cheesy-deliciousness of my life, we saw the sites of Naples including an ancient castle complete with a mote, the port, etc. The next two days we spent back in Rome with some friends from the DU Bologna program touring the Vatican and attending Rome’s end-of-summer festival called Bianca Notte (or “the white night), in which all of the city’s main sites and attractions stay open and lit-up all night.
Last weekend I went with a fairly large group of AUR students to the Cinque Terre – 5 Mediterranean hill towns along Italy’s northwest coast. We got to spend 3 full days there and it was so nice to be out of the chaos of Rome! I didn’t have to worry about being hit by cars, mopeds, or buses – and I could lay out on the rocks along the water and enjoy being able to see the stars for the first time in weeks. My friends and I found a man listed in Rick Steve’s Italy guidebook who rents out private rooms and got a pretty good deal on a studio apartment complete with a nice kitchen and bathroom for the 2 nights we were there. We stayed in the 4th northern-most town, Vernazza, and after hiking the coastal trail between all 5 of the towns on Saturday, we decided that Vernazza was our favorite. I’ve been to the Cinque Terre once before with my family and absolutely loved it then too. This time was quite different being there without parents and making my own hotel and train arrangements – but we had so much fun. Our first day there was a little on the cool side so we spent the day getting acquainted with Vernazza, eating the best seafood I’ve ever had at a restaurant perched on a cliff about 100 feet above the water, stargazing, and playing cards. As I mentioned before, Saturday we took a boat from Vernazza to the southern-most town (Riomaggiore) and hiked north through all 5 towns, stopping to look around each town, swim, etc. When Sunday rolled around and it was time to head back to Rome, I was definitely not ready to leave the tranquility and the beauty of the Cinque Terre – but that’ll just give me a reason to go back! ☺
This weekend was pretty low-key, a nice change from the hectic-nature that travelling each weekend brings. Yesterday I went on a day-trip with my study abroad program (ISA) on one of their planned excursions to the Tuscan town, Assisi. I really appreciated being able to just go hop on a bus and not do any of the planning or arrangements myself. We went on an organized tour of 4 churches that included a narrative of Saint Francis of Assisi’s life and got to explore the medieval streets during our free time. As one point I was in a shop buying some pretty cool souvenirs made out of wood from the local olive trees and actually ran into my friends from the DU-Bologna program, including a girl on my lacrosse team who I didn’t even realize was studying in Italy, who happened to be in Assisi on a 3-day trip around Tuscany with their school! It was really nice to see some familiar faces and was definitely one of those experiences that opens your eyes as to how small the world can feel, even when you’re wandering a medieval Italian town thousands of miles from home! Surprisingly the bus ride to and from Assisi was one of my favorite parts of the trip – it was really interesting to see the landscape transform from the cramped buildings and bustling traffic of Rome to the hilly/mountainous countryside dotted with rivers and vineyards.
I guess between my enjoyment of bus rides through the countryside and stargazing in the Cinque Terre, I might conclude that the chaos of Rome is more than I’m used to living in the suburbs of Minnesota or the more suburban reaches of Denver. Even today I went for a run through the larger park near my apartment and after discovering some new trails that headed out away from the city traffic noise, I got so excited to see what it looked like and to get away from the noise that I ended up running 8 miles - - something not too difficult compared to a full-length, full-field soccer game, but the longest distance I’ve run just for the heck of running in a loooong time.
This weekend has been one of ethnic experiences. My friends and I are finally getting a little tired of eating pasta and/or pizza nearly everyday and have been immensely craving other food groups. So Thursday night I went out to eat with my roommate, Elsa, at a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood and it was SO good to have some chicken and rice that had other flavors besides marinara or pesto ☺ Then…I guess I must have been really sick of pasta…because Friday night a group of us ventured over to the Vatican to a Mexican restaurant recommended by our study abroad director and gorged ourselves on guacamole and fajitas – something I’ve been greatly missing since living in Denver where it feels like half the restaurants are Mexican food. Aaand to conclude my ethnic weekend, my friends and I ate at a Thai restaurant that all students at our school seem to rave about, and boy were they right. Not only were our meals ridiculously cheap and so delicious, but the owner loves students from AUR and gave us 5 appetizers, 2 desserts, and 4 bottles of wine (yes, 4 bottles – for 6 people) - - for FREE. I was just in awe the whole time. It was all so delicious and for some reason the wine tasted so much better knowing I wasn’t paying for it, haha. Anyway, needless to say it was a really fun night filled with teaching our Thai servers English words that they asked us about and assuring them we’d return shortly with more friends eager to eat.
Before my run this morning, Ally and I got up earrrrrly and took the bus to the Porta Portese flea market, a famous Sundays-only market in Rome. It was definitely an experience to watch the frantic Italians violently sorting through the endless rows of tables full of stuff and the vendors singing and bartering. We were pretty overwhelmed by all of it but we had a blast and I came out with a pair of shoes and two scarves for a total of 10 euros, not bad! Now I’m off to do a little homework (shocking, I know ☺) as I eagerly await our 3-day ISA excursion to Sorrento and the island Capri next weekend and the arrival of my parents in less than 2 weeks!!!! Hope all is well at home and/or if you’re reading this from your own foreign adventure!
Diana
Now that I’ve gained some sense of direction for the sprawling city of Rome and figured out where I live in relation to major landmarks, etc. I’m becoming more and more comfortable with spending my time between classes wandering the city. Without a lot of homework (at least not in relation to being a biology major at DU…) I have far more spare time than I seem to know what to do with. So during breaks between my classes I tend to stop at one of the two open-air markets to get some fruit and then off I go – I just pick a direction and start walking. I can only do this for a couple of hours because by that time it’s the siesta part of the afternoon and everything closes, but it’s forced me to learn the city better and has allowed me to discover tons of interesting sites, potential running paths, stores, markets, and of course – gelato shops. The rest of my school week, although I’m not sure I can even call it that since it’s only 3 days long, is consumed by soccer practice and spending time with friends. My friends and I have started taking turns cooking dinners for each other in our apartments, so we usually gather at someone’s place 2-3 nights per week and enjoy attempting random Italian recipes – knowing that if it doesn’t turn out we can always resort to eating gelato for dinner ☺ Soccer is still in Italian and thus incredibly disorienting, but overall it is going really well as I’ve been named one of our two starting offensive players and am looking forward to our playing in a tournament of Roman Universities in a couple of weeks.
My first couple of weekends in Rome have been…incredible. I wasn’t expecting to get to do as much travelling as I have been with school starting, but it’s been really easy to do homework during the week or on the train, etc. so each weekend I’ve been able to jet off to some party of Italy. Our first weekend, some friends and I took a day-trip to Naples, about a 2-hour train ride south of Rome and the birthplace of pizza! Let’s just say that when guidebooks suggest you do a day-trip to Naples rather than sleep there, I’d listen to them. Naples was…definitely just as dirty and seemingly just as crime-filled as all of the books make it out to be. Given that I spent the day there with 3 friends from NYC/New Jersey (they’re a little more street savvy than those of us who grew up in suburbia), I felt pretty safe ☺ Haha. Given the amount of sketchy characters roaming the streets and the trash blowing around my feet, we had an excellent day. Our first stop (this shouldn’t be a surprise to those of you who know how food-motivated I am ☺..) was a pizzeria. Not just any pizzeria, Pizzeria Michaela – made famous not only by Rick Steves but by the author of my new favorite book - Eat, Pray, Love. After navigating to the pizzeria only to find that there was a mob of hungry Italians winding down the street just waiting for enough tables to clear for them to even get into the restaurant, we knew that it was going to be some good pizza. And sure enough, we were not disappointed. They only served three types of pizza – marinara, margherita, and magherita with extra buffalo mozzarella cheese – plus beer or coke. Oh and they expect each customer to consume an entire pizza individually, a task that seemed daunting only until we tasted the pizza and realized that there was no way anyone could only eat a slice or two. After stuffing ourselves with the most amazing bubbly-cheesy-deliciousness of my life, we saw the sites of Naples including an ancient castle complete with a mote, the port, etc. The next two days we spent back in Rome with some friends from the DU Bologna program touring the Vatican and attending Rome’s end-of-summer festival called Bianca Notte (or “the white night), in which all of the city’s main sites and attractions stay open and lit-up all night.
Last weekend I went with a fairly large group of AUR students to the Cinque Terre – 5 Mediterranean hill towns along Italy’s northwest coast. We got to spend 3 full days there and it was so nice to be out of the chaos of Rome! I didn’t have to worry about being hit by cars, mopeds, or buses – and I could lay out on the rocks along the water and enjoy being able to see the stars for the first time in weeks. My friends and I found a man listed in Rick Steve’s Italy guidebook who rents out private rooms and got a pretty good deal on a studio apartment complete with a nice kitchen and bathroom for the 2 nights we were there. We stayed in the 4th northern-most town, Vernazza, and after hiking the coastal trail between all 5 of the towns on Saturday, we decided that Vernazza was our favorite. I’ve been to the Cinque Terre once before with my family and absolutely loved it then too. This time was quite different being there without parents and making my own hotel and train arrangements – but we had so much fun. Our first day there was a little on the cool side so we spent the day getting acquainted with Vernazza, eating the best seafood I’ve ever had at a restaurant perched on a cliff about 100 feet above the water, stargazing, and playing cards. As I mentioned before, Saturday we took a boat from Vernazza to the southern-most town (Riomaggiore) and hiked north through all 5 towns, stopping to look around each town, swim, etc. When Sunday rolled around and it was time to head back to Rome, I was definitely not ready to leave the tranquility and the beauty of the Cinque Terre – but that’ll just give me a reason to go back! ☺
This weekend was pretty low-key, a nice change from the hectic-nature that travelling each weekend brings. Yesterday I went on a day-trip with my study abroad program (ISA) on one of their planned excursions to the Tuscan town, Assisi. I really appreciated being able to just go hop on a bus and not do any of the planning or arrangements myself. We went on an organized tour of 4 churches that included a narrative of Saint Francis of Assisi’s life and got to explore the medieval streets during our free time. As one point I was in a shop buying some pretty cool souvenirs made out of wood from the local olive trees and actually ran into my friends from the DU-Bologna program, including a girl on my lacrosse team who I didn’t even realize was studying in Italy, who happened to be in Assisi on a 3-day trip around Tuscany with their school! It was really nice to see some familiar faces and was definitely one of those experiences that opens your eyes as to how small the world can feel, even when you’re wandering a medieval Italian town thousands of miles from home! Surprisingly the bus ride to and from Assisi was one of my favorite parts of the trip – it was really interesting to see the landscape transform from the cramped buildings and bustling traffic of Rome to the hilly/mountainous countryside dotted with rivers and vineyards.
I guess between my enjoyment of bus rides through the countryside and stargazing in the Cinque Terre, I might conclude that the chaos of Rome is more than I’m used to living in the suburbs of Minnesota or the more suburban reaches of Denver. Even today I went for a run through the larger park near my apartment and after discovering some new trails that headed out away from the city traffic noise, I got so excited to see what it looked like and to get away from the noise that I ended up running 8 miles - - something not too difficult compared to a full-length, full-field soccer game, but the longest distance I’ve run just for the heck of running in a loooong time.
This weekend has been one of ethnic experiences. My friends and I are finally getting a little tired of eating pasta and/or pizza nearly everyday and have been immensely craving other food groups. So Thursday night I went out to eat with my roommate, Elsa, at a Chinese restaurant in our neighborhood and it was SO good to have some chicken and rice that had other flavors besides marinara or pesto ☺ Then…I guess I must have been really sick of pasta…because Friday night a group of us ventured over to the Vatican to a Mexican restaurant recommended by our study abroad director and gorged ourselves on guacamole and fajitas – something I’ve been greatly missing since living in Denver where it feels like half the restaurants are Mexican food. Aaand to conclude my ethnic weekend, my friends and I ate at a Thai restaurant that all students at our school seem to rave about, and boy were they right. Not only were our meals ridiculously cheap and so delicious, but the owner loves students from AUR and gave us 5 appetizers, 2 desserts, and 4 bottles of wine (yes, 4 bottles – for 6 people) - - for FREE. I was just in awe the whole time. It was all so delicious and for some reason the wine tasted so much better knowing I wasn’t paying for it, haha. Anyway, needless to say it was a really fun night filled with teaching our Thai servers English words that they asked us about and assuring them we’d return shortly with more friends eager to eat.
Before my run this morning, Ally and I got up earrrrrly and took the bus to the Porta Portese flea market, a famous Sundays-only market in Rome. It was definitely an experience to watch the frantic Italians violently sorting through the endless rows of tables full of stuff and the vendors singing and bartering. We were pretty overwhelmed by all of it but we had a blast and I came out with a pair of shoes and two scarves for a total of 10 euros, not bad! Now I’m off to do a little homework (shocking, I know ☺) as I eagerly await our 3-day ISA excursion to Sorrento and the island Capri next weekend and the arrival of my parents in less than 2 weeks!!!! Hope all is well at home and/or if you’re reading this from your own foreign adventure!
Diana
Sunday, September 21, 2008
So this is culture shock?
I’ve been in Rome for over 2 weeks now and am finally getting a feel for being back in the swing of classes, but even with the gradual establishment of a sense of regularity this experience continues to throw out some curve balls especially in aspects of my life that I've always seen as so stabilizing. Before I left, DU study abroad orientation warned us that there would be phases of adjustment to life abroad. The phases were something like this...
1. Excitement - i.e. you're SO excited to have finally arrived that you hardly have time to think about anything but the beginning of this new chapter in your life
2. Culture Shock - after settling in, the initial excitement begins to fade and you become easily overwhelmed by the many, many unfamiliar aspects of your new life
3. Establishment of a Comfortable and Regular Lifestyle - culture shock wears off, you settle into your new European rhythm...there's more stages that I can't remember but it goes something like that....
Anyway, despite my denial that it would ever happen to me seeing as I've handled changes like leaving for college in Colorado, etc. pretty well, I've decided the culture shock has finally come and is (I think?) starting to fade...between my new living arrangement, school, soccer, and constantly traveling on the weekends - I'm immersing myself more and more into Italian culture than I'd ever anticipated, and while it can be overwhelming at times - I'm learning to love every minute of this roller coaster!
Besides being in another country, experiencing another culture, etc. this semester should be quite the adjustment for me. Why you ask? Well first of all it’s a 14-week semester, not a 10-week quarter like DU uses. I’ll have to get used to the classes that I’m taking far more than at DU where if you don’t like a class it’s over quicker than you can comprehend. That adjustment should be an interesting one seeing as I (a DU biology major) am not taking ANY science classes this semester, not even anything that resembles science. That was made possible by the fact that: 1. I came into DU with enough AP credits that I’m ahead of my class to begin with, 2. It’s difficult to find a study abroad program with a good science program (unless you go to Australia, which is too Americanized for me to “culture” myself there), and 3. This schedule came out of my attempts to take advantage of Rome as my classroom and make myself a little bit more well-rounded in the process. So after a little adjustment, here’s what my schedule looks like for the semester:
Monday: Art of Rome (on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
Tuesday: Italian Sketchbook (on-site) 9-1
Wednesday: War and Peace in Rome (partially on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
And while Monday-Wednesday may look incomplete, I’m please to announce that that’s my schedule! Not bad, eh? I’ve been REALLY pleased with my on-site classes too. It’s such an amazing experience to be able to sit on the steps of the Colosseum while my professor lectures, or to sit on a bench overlooking the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum drawing and sipping coffee for 3 hours - - who knew some people called this school?! Needless to say, it’s been a drastic change from my usual organic chemistry labs and biology lectures. I think the change has been an easy one due to the lower workload and the fact that I get to sit outside right in front of the ruins that I’ve only ever seen in textbooks and learn about them, but I’m surprised to say it’s also been a little bit difficult. While I love not being overwhelmed with science classes, this is also way out of my element. I mean I’m in drawing?! There’s no objective way to grade that, thus us science-type personalities may become easily distraught, haha. So while it’s been a good change and one that is sure to make me a well-rounded academic, my artsy class load has definitely thrown me a curve ball and has added another “culture-shock” type element to deal with and adjust to.
At the beginning of the first school week I signed up for a few activities and can now say that I’m becoming very involved in my school. I’m officially playing soccer for the AUR She-Wolves in addition to being in the “culture club” which does excursions around Italy, yoga, and attending weekly Italian cooking classes - - sooo I’d say I’m keeping busy!
Soccer is a pretty unique experience, which is weird for me to even think much less say since I’ve played it for SO long and have always found it to be a stably scheduled part of my life no matter when or where life has taken me. Italians call soccer calico, but what my team plays isn’t actually normal soccer, it’s called calcetto – or a small field, 5-on-5 game that has some weird rules that our coach who only speaks Italian is trying to teach us in preparation for strict Italian-only-speaking referees. Having an Italian-speaking coach has definitely been eye opening; in fact…I honestly think I’ve learned more Italian at soccer practice than in my Italian class. Between the Italian coach, the new rules, and new teammates – soccer has taken some adjustment but I really think it’s enhancing my cultural immersion and has allowed me to meet a lot of new people, including a lot of the resident (4-year) students at AUR.
That’s about all I can stay awake to coherently write for now…I just got home a couple of hours ago from a 3 day hike through the Cinque Terre (5 hill towns on the Mediterranean that are about a 4 hour train ride north of Rome), so I’m a little wiped out. But there’s tons more to come, so stay tuned ☺
Love you all!
~Diana
1. Excitement - i.e. you're SO excited to have finally arrived that you hardly have time to think about anything but the beginning of this new chapter in your life
2. Culture Shock - after settling in, the initial excitement begins to fade and you become easily overwhelmed by the many, many unfamiliar aspects of your new life
3. Establishment of a Comfortable and Regular Lifestyle - culture shock wears off, you settle into your new European rhythm...there's more stages that I can't remember but it goes something like that....
Anyway, despite my denial that it would ever happen to me seeing as I've handled changes like leaving for college in Colorado, etc. pretty well, I've decided the culture shock has finally come and is (I think?) starting to fade...between my new living arrangement, school, soccer, and constantly traveling on the weekends - I'm immersing myself more and more into Italian culture than I'd ever anticipated, and while it can be overwhelming at times - I'm learning to love every minute of this roller coaster!
Besides being in another country, experiencing another culture, etc. this semester should be quite the adjustment for me. Why you ask? Well first of all it’s a 14-week semester, not a 10-week quarter like DU uses. I’ll have to get used to the classes that I’m taking far more than at DU where if you don’t like a class it’s over quicker than you can comprehend. That adjustment should be an interesting one seeing as I (a DU biology major) am not taking ANY science classes this semester, not even anything that resembles science. That was made possible by the fact that: 1. I came into DU with enough AP credits that I’m ahead of my class to begin with, 2. It’s difficult to find a study abroad program with a good science program (unless you go to Australia, which is too Americanized for me to “culture” myself there), and 3. This schedule came out of my attempts to take advantage of Rome as my classroom and make myself a little bit more well-rounded in the process. So after a little adjustment, here’s what my schedule looks like for the semester:
Monday: Art of Rome (on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
Tuesday: Italian Sketchbook (on-site) 9-1
Wednesday: War and Peace in Rome (partially on-site) 9-12, Intro to Italian Language and Culture 3:40-5
And while Monday-Wednesday may look incomplete, I’m please to announce that that’s my schedule! Not bad, eh? I’ve been REALLY pleased with my on-site classes too. It’s such an amazing experience to be able to sit on the steps of the Colosseum while my professor lectures, or to sit on a bench overlooking the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum drawing and sipping coffee for 3 hours - - who knew some people called this school?! Needless to say, it’s been a drastic change from my usual organic chemistry labs and biology lectures. I think the change has been an easy one due to the lower workload and the fact that I get to sit outside right in front of the ruins that I’ve only ever seen in textbooks and learn about them, but I’m surprised to say it’s also been a little bit difficult. While I love not being overwhelmed with science classes, this is also way out of my element. I mean I’m in drawing?! There’s no objective way to grade that, thus us science-type personalities may become easily distraught, haha. So while it’s been a good change and one that is sure to make me a well-rounded academic, my artsy class load has definitely thrown me a curve ball and has added another “culture-shock” type element to deal with and adjust to.
At the beginning of the first school week I signed up for a few activities and can now say that I’m becoming very involved in my school. I’m officially playing soccer for the AUR She-Wolves in addition to being in the “culture club” which does excursions around Italy, yoga, and attending weekly Italian cooking classes - - sooo I’d say I’m keeping busy!
Soccer is a pretty unique experience, which is weird for me to even think much less say since I’ve played it for SO long and have always found it to be a stably scheduled part of my life no matter when or where life has taken me. Italians call soccer calico, but what my team plays isn’t actually normal soccer, it’s called calcetto – or a small field, 5-on-5 game that has some weird rules that our coach who only speaks Italian is trying to teach us in preparation for strict Italian-only-speaking referees. Having an Italian-speaking coach has definitely been eye opening; in fact…I honestly think I’ve learned more Italian at soccer practice than in my Italian class. Between the Italian coach, the new rules, and new teammates – soccer has taken some adjustment but I really think it’s enhancing my cultural immersion and has allowed me to meet a lot of new people, including a lot of the resident (4-year) students at AUR.
That’s about all I can stay awake to coherently write for now…I just got home a couple of hours ago from a 3 day hike through the Cinque Terre (5 hill towns on the Mediterranean that are about a 4 hour train ride north of Rome), so I’m a little wiped out. But there’s tons more to come, so stay tuned ☺
Love you all!
~Diana
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Una Bella Città! (a beautiful city!)
Both AUR (The American University of Rome) and ISA (International Studies Abroad – and the organization that I’m in Rome through) orientations kept me pretty busy last week. After move-in day an AUR professor led us on a much-anticipated tour of the Arches of Constantine and the Coliseum, followed by the Trevi fountain and the Pantheon. Needless to say it was a long couple of days of walking across Rome in the 95-degree sunshine. Thursday evening ISA held a “welcome dinner” for all of its students at a restaurant located in the Travestere neighborhood of Rome. On the way to the restaurant they took us around on a brief bus tour of Rome, pointing out the best views (I live on the highest hill in Rome in the neighborhood Gianicolo), parks, etc. After a traditional Italian 3 hour meal consisting of 6 courses (bruschetta, pasta, risotto, meat and potatoes, salad and bread, gelato…sooo much yet SO good!), our ISA advisors gave us each a map and sent us on our way…i.e. they were making us find our own way home, a task that can be daunting in a city like Rome! So my friends and I wandered away from the restaurant deciding that we’d take a little time to enjoy exploring the area before venturing home - - but the next thing we knew it was past midnight (when the buses stop their regular routes) and our map was useless. So, we figured it couldn’t possibly be that hard to just walk home, I mean there were a few landmarks that we recognized, and off we went. Just a little pointer for large European cities: never assume anything will be easy, go smoothly, or as planned. This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the course of my first week in Rome, thus making patience and humoring the situation key responses to such unpredictable situations. As my friends and I wandered around Travestere in search of the hill that’s home to our apartments, we assumed finding the highest hill in Rome would be easy - - you know, just look for the tallest point and walk towards it…nope, not so easy. In fact, sadly it took us about an hour to even figure out that we were on the opposite side of the Tiber River from where we live. After making that shocking discovery, finding a bridge to cross (which appeared to have some sort of drunken rave going on making the bridge packed full of people and a little difficult to cross efficiently), and squinting our eyes in the dark in search of the supposedly easily spotted hill - - we eventually found a map at a bus stop (who knew bus stops all had maps…?!) that indeed: 1. Pointed us in the right direction, and 2. Kindly informed us that we’d walked in an unnecessarily large loop and were actually quite close to home when we’d left the restaurant to begin with…whooops. Either way, we thoroughly enjoyed our 2.5 hour trek home (it walked off the 6 course dinner anyway) as we giggled our way into our apartments just after 2 a.m. I will say that that walk not only oriented me more as to where my apartment is in relation to the rest of the city’s sites (it’s much more orienting to walk rather than be in a taxi or on a bus), but it also made me realize that while I should be alert for petty theft and all that, to me Rome feels like a safe city at night. Me friends and I were 100% comfortable wandering the city and never really felt like we were lost, we just sort of assumed we’d find our way and in the meantime we could enjoy the beauty that is the Eternal City at night.
Orientation ended on Friday giving us freedom to spend the weekend exploring the city and getting settled with our new friends before classes started on Monday. Saturday was a pretty average day of grocery shopping, getting settled in the apartment, and sleeping in after spending Friday night cooking hand-made pizza (SO good!) at my friend’s apartment. I did spend Saturday afternoon playing some much-awaited Italian soccer with my friend Matt (who goes to John Cabot, another American school in Rome) at a local park before going to Campo di Fiori, a popular square filled with American bars, with a bunch of DU kids as well as new friends I’d met during orientation. Our night in Campo was a fun one, I was so intrigued by how Rome becomes so alive at night (partially due to it being so hot during the day…) and how that’s so encouraged by having pedestrian-friendly squares for people to sit and talk in so conveniently. Sunday some friends and me made the trek to the Roman beaches surrounding the town Ostica Antica where we indeed found masses of American kids from our school soaking up some sun (or clouds seeing as it was cloudy, but still hot) before classes began. The beaches were pretty crowded seeing as they’re just a tram stop from the city, and most wanted to charge money for umbrellas or chairs, but we had a blast! This part of the Mediterranean is very different from Greece. The water’s not as clear, but also not as still, in fact this part of Italy had some huge waves for us to enjoy – the opposite of Greece where the water hardly seemed to move. After the beach, Elsa and I ran back to our apartment to get in a quick shower before making the surprisingly short walk to my friend’s Matt and Nick’s (both go to John Cabot) apartment for Matt’s birthday dinner. We spent Matt’s dinner going to a somewhat pricey, but well known and liked by locals, restaurant in Travestere where we indulged in endless bread and bruschetta, calamari, and a bunch of different kinds of pasta, followed by a trip to the local gelato shop - - making that probably my 5th consecutive day of eating gelato in Rome…☺ So, things are going great here in Italia! I’m eating like a king (or queen?) and hoping you’ll all still love me if I return to America a little more obese than when I left…Actually I really don’t anticipate that happening at all…I walk like 10 miles a day here…half of which is uphill - - so bring on the gelato!! I’ve been SO happy to be able to instant message, email, and skype with so many of you – it makes me feel very loved and allows me to comfortably enjoy my time here without missing home too much. I’m off to AUR soccer try-outs now (wish me luck!), so I’ll let you know how that goes and will write more shortly on my first week of classes!!
Love you all!
Diana
Orientation ended on Friday giving us freedom to spend the weekend exploring the city and getting settled with our new friends before classes started on Monday. Saturday was a pretty average day of grocery shopping, getting settled in the apartment, and sleeping in after spending Friday night cooking hand-made pizza (SO good!) at my friend’s apartment. I did spend Saturday afternoon playing some much-awaited Italian soccer with my friend Matt (who goes to John Cabot, another American school in Rome) at a local park before going to Campo di Fiori, a popular square filled with American bars, with a bunch of DU kids as well as new friends I’d met during orientation. Our night in Campo was a fun one, I was so intrigued by how Rome becomes so alive at night (partially due to it being so hot during the day…) and how that’s so encouraged by having pedestrian-friendly squares for people to sit and talk in so conveniently. Sunday some friends and me made the trek to the Roman beaches surrounding the town Ostica Antica where we indeed found masses of American kids from our school soaking up some sun (or clouds seeing as it was cloudy, but still hot) before classes began. The beaches were pretty crowded seeing as they’re just a tram stop from the city, and most wanted to charge money for umbrellas or chairs, but we had a blast! This part of the Mediterranean is very different from Greece. The water’s not as clear, but also not as still, in fact this part of Italy had some huge waves for us to enjoy – the opposite of Greece where the water hardly seemed to move. After the beach, Elsa and I ran back to our apartment to get in a quick shower before making the surprisingly short walk to my friend’s Matt and Nick’s (both go to John Cabot) apartment for Matt’s birthday dinner. We spent Matt’s dinner going to a somewhat pricey, but well known and liked by locals, restaurant in Travestere where we indulged in endless bread and bruschetta, calamari, and a bunch of different kinds of pasta, followed by a trip to the local gelato shop - - making that probably my 5th consecutive day of eating gelato in Rome…☺ So, things are going great here in Italia! I’m eating like a king (or queen?) and hoping you’ll all still love me if I return to America a little more obese than when I left…Actually I really don’t anticipate that happening at all…I walk like 10 miles a day here…half of which is uphill - - so bring on the gelato!! I’ve been SO happy to be able to instant message, email, and skype with so many of you – it makes me feel very loved and allows me to comfortably enjoy my time here without missing home too much. I’m off to AUR soccer try-outs now (wish me luck!), so I’ll let you know how that goes and will write more shortly on my first week of classes!!
Love you all!
Diana
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sono finalmente in Roma! (I’m finally in Rome!)
My friends (Tyler, Elsa, and Ally) and I have finally concluded our travels through Greece and are starting to get settled in our apartments in Rome where we’ll be living until Christmas time. Now that we’re in Rome, we’ve noticed just how much our experiences in Greece taught us and adapted us to European lifestyles. Between sleeping in the hallway of a ferry on Saturday night and being kicked awake by a security guard (whoops) at 4:30 a.m. while tryyyying to sleep in the Athens airport on Sunday night, we had a rough couple of nights getting here. But like all of the other obstacles we encountered on our travels throughout Greece, we figured it our, made it work, and had a blast in the process. Our arrival in Rome was, like most of our arrivals to new places in Greece, characterized by the fact that we had nowhere to stay once we were here. Luckily this time we arrived mid-day and had time to deal with issues such as that the cab drivers did not know of the hotel we requested, couldn’t find our school’s campus (American University of Rome), and only actually found it once I pointed out that we were stopped right next to it…Anyway, we ended up in a hotel really close to our school our first night in Rome where we showered, napped, ate, and did some much needed laundry in attempts to feel remotely rejuvenated for AUR orientation.
Tuesday morning Elsa and I were picked up at the hotel and brought to our new apartment in the Travestere area of Rome where we met our two new roommates, Jessica and Tracy. The 4 of us spent the majority of Tuesday running around our HUGE Roman apartment in euphoria as we discovered its many unexpected amenities; wireless internet, 2 HUGE balconies, one off the also GIANT living room (complete with fancy chandelier) and one connecting the two bedrooms, more storage than we could possibly need including a storage closet about the size of a 3rd bedroom containing a spare mattress for visitors (such as my sister, Lucy!), kitchen, and a bathroom with an uncommonly large European shower. Needless to say we were already quite excited about our living situation, especially once we found out that we live about a 2 minute walk from the AUR campus compared to most of our friends from DU studying here who live a 10-15 minute walk at the closest and some are even so much as a 15 bus ride, so I guess you could say my luck continues!
Tuesday evening, Elsa and I took our first run in the park (Villa Scialla) near our apartment. This park is…incredible. It’s built within the ancient Roman city walls and has AMAZING panoramic views of the Rome skyline complete with the Colosseum, etc. The paths go from winding under vine-covered arches, to up and down hills, into a wooded forest, past fountains and palm trees and picnicking Italian families - - It’s all that I could’ve hoped for as far as a place to exercise safely in Rome and more. So needless to say, first impressions of my home for the next 4 months…not too shabby, I mean I guess I can get used to this lifestyle ☺
More to come on AUR Orientation Week shortly! Also, in case some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added links on the left-hand column of my blog to my photo albums for Greece and Rome thus far. I’ll write more when I can, stay tuned ☺
Diana
xoxo
Tuesday morning Elsa and I were picked up at the hotel and brought to our new apartment in the Travestere area of Rome where we met our two new roommates, Jessica and Tracy. The 4 of us spent the majority of Tuesday running around our HUGE Roman apartment in euphoria as we discovered its many unexpected amenities; wireless internet, 2 HUGE balconies, one off the also GIANT living room (complete with fancy chandelier) and one connecting the two bedrooms, more storage than we could possibly need including a storage closet about the size of a 3rd bedroom containing a spare mattress for visitors (such as my sister, Lucy!), kitchen, and a bathroom with an uncommonly large European shower. Needless to say we were already quite excited about our living situation, especially once we found out that we live about a 2 minute walk from the AUR campus compared to most of our friends from DU studying here who live a 10-15 minute walk at the closest and some are even so much as a 15 bus ride, so I guess you could say my luck continues!
Tuesday evening, Elsa and I took our first run in the park (Villa Scialla) near our apartment. This park is…incredible. It’s built within the ancient Roman city walls and has AMAZING panoramic views of the Rome skyline complete with the Colosseum, etc. The paths go from winding under vine-covered arches, to up and down hills, into a wooded forest, past fountains and palm trees and picnicking Italian families - - It’s all that I could’ve hoped for as far as a place to exercise safely in Rome and more. So needless to say, first impressions of my home for the next 4 months…not too shabby, I mean I guess I can get used to this lifestyle ☺
More to come on AUR Orientation Week shortly! Also, in case some of you hadn’t noticed, I’ve added links on the left-hand column of my blog to my photo albums for Greece and Rome thus far. I’ll write more when I can, stay tuned ☺
Diana
xoxo
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Spontaneity = My New Middle Name
Last time you all heard from me I was on a ferry en route to Crete, a brief island hop as a means to get to our final Greek destination of Santorini – a location known by Greeks to be “the party island.” But before I even get to our adventures on “the party island,” I must enlighten you all to how we got there in the first place – an adventure in itself to say the least.
Our decision to go to Crete as a means of getting to Santorini turned out to be a good one. Essentially, from Kythira we had 2 choices: the first was going back to the Athens port (Pireaus), spending the night there, and hoping they had a direct ferry to Santorini the next day (knowledge of the transportation here seems to be somewhat of a wild goose chase with everyone you ask giving you a different story about when/where buses or ferries go, etc.). Our second option was going from Kythira to the Kissamo port on Crete (the biggest of the Greek islands and known for its distinct Turkish/Greek culture mix), then somehow getting to the Iraklia port which just happens to be about 150 miles east down the coast from Kissamo. So, with a fear of taking the ferry back to Athens, finding out that there weren’t ferries the day we needed one to Santorini, and thus being stuck in Athens for the duration of our trip – we chose the Crete option instead, our logic being that if the worst happened and we couldn’t get to the Iraklia port and/or they too didn’t actually have a ferry to Santorini that day, we’d at least be on a new Greek island rather than back in Athens. (I’m trying to make this brief for the sake of all you readers, but this process really was a novel in itself, so bear with me ☺)
So, off we went to Crete – once again hopping on a ferry with zero knowledge of exactly what would happen when we got off. We arrived at the Kissamo port, late again around 11 p.m., and after talking to an informative taxi driver found out that the actual town of Kissamo was not only about a 4 mile hike away (which we immediately recognized as a bad idea (don’t worry Dad ☺) seeing as it was dark and the roads are about half as wide as they should be to accommodate European drivers), but the town only has 4 hotels – of course all of which were full on the night of a late-night ferry arrival. So…with the help of my new bible (a.k.a. the Lonely Planet guide to Mediterranean Europe), we had the taxi driver take us to the next major town, Hania, on what can only be described as a makes-you-want-to-dig-your-finger-nails-into-your-own-thighs-for-fear-of-either-hitting-a-moped-or-being-hit-by-a-bus-while-passing-a-moped kind of taxi ride. Upon our arrival in Hania, we began searching for a hotel listed in my guidebook, only to find ourselves completely disoriented by the Greek street names and somehow wandering an extremely busy touristy area in a daze. Well, evidently our lost-and-confused-and-desperate-for-sleep-must-be-Americans-gaze was quite obvious because we were quickly approached by a middle-aged woman asking us (in English, a sure sign they know you’re an obvious American) if we needed a room because she (once again, here’s our unbelievable luck) happened to own a hostel?! So sure enough, we followed her into her hostel and immediately accepted the quiet, well-ventilated, 4-bed room complete with our own bathroom and 2 giant fans that she offered us. Not only did this kind woman practically scrape us up off the street and give us beds and a shower, but she then showed us around the corner to her favorite gelato shop where we gorged ourselves on 3-flavor cones until we’d been comforted enough to fall asleep immediately. The next morning we easily found the bus station where they (our luck, once again) indeed had buses departing for Iraklia every half hour. So off we went on a 2.5 hour bus ride along the coast, which turned out to be an amazingly beautiful way to see the incredible scenery of Crete - mountains on the right, Mediterranean Sea on the left, I was so torn as to which way to turn my head ☺. When we got to Iraklia, the first two people we talked to about a ferry to Santorini seemed to respond with “Santorini, today?! Oh no, not possible.” But sure enough, our persistence paid off and we found that there was 1 ferry leaving for Santorini that afternoon! Ecstatic with the knowledge that we were actually going to make it to Santorini after all (at one point, a seemingly 50/50 chance of success), we booked our tickets.
Our ferry to Santorini was about an hour late in its departure (Europe is definitely going to teach me patience…), thus getting us to the island around 10 p.m. After some more confusion with the transportation, we hopped on a bus (for a rather terrifying ride up the switch-backs of Santorini) that was supposed to take us to our destination town of Perissa, where our hostel was waiting for us to check-in by 11. However, our bus made an unexpected stop in Fira, which is apparently in the opposite direction of Perissa, where we found out that to get to Perissa we’d have to switch to a bus that wouldn’t depart until 11:30, that’s precisely 30 minutes after check-in closes at the hostel for those of you not paying attention to the novel at this point…So, we ended up taking a taxi and arriving in Perissa around 10:56, at this point twitching from some combination of excitement that we had actually made it and jitters from another exciting taxi ride (seriously though, better than most American roller coasters). After a long journey, we treated ourselves to some snacks and drinks on the porch of our hostel where we got to know the others staying with us – 1 girl from Ireland, her 2 friends from England, and 1 friend from Canada (all of whom roomed with us), plus a conglomeration of others including some from Australia, Belgium, some Argentineans who roomed with us our second night, and Peter – a must-be-40-year-old hippy who does odd jobs for the hostel in exchange for living there and getting intoxicated quite regularly while meeting the new hostel-ers each night. Although I can’t give a good impression of Peter justice, a conversation with him generally goes something like this:
Peter: (with a googly-eyed expression)“Where are you from?”
Diana: “the US”
Peter: “You’re American?! I love America. I love you. Do you love me? No really, do you love me?”
Diana (with dumbfounded look) “Of course I love you Peter.”
Peter: “Do you really mean that?”
Diana: “Yes…I mean it.”
Peter: “Okay good. Do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No, sorry. I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “You don’t smoke?! But do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No…I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “Yeah I know, but do you have some cigarettes?” - - shortly after, gets distracted and walks into the street while breaking into song…Like I said, that may not do his character justice, but I tried ☺
The next morning we got up early to catch a bus to the port for the full-day sailboat tour we’d booked at check-in. The tour was a little tourist-y, but worth every second. We saw so much of Santorini’s geographical wonders that there’s no way we could’ve seen otherwise, including:
1. A stop for a 1.5 hour hike up and around the Caldera (volcano island), an active volcano that once erupted thus forming what is now known as Santorini and leaving only 5% of its population at the time alive!
2. Swimming at a natural hot springs (Lamatica Nepa) that was located in a rock cove of a small island off the mainland of Santorini. The sailboat couldn’t get up to shore because of the shallow waters so we had to jump out and swim about 50 meters each way – kind of a funny experience to watch all the members of our boat just abandon ship off the side and “swim” (more like thrashing for some) to the hot springs to enjoy the hot (or more like bath-temperature) water with a surrounding mud bath which quickly became a mud fight for those of us uninterested in therapeutically rolling around in it☺
3. Lunch on the island Thirasia at an AMAZING seafood restaurant right on the water where I enjoyed my first Swordfish Souvlaki (kabob)
4. Our last stop was to watch the world-famous Santorini sunset in the northernmost town, Oia (where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants takes place…). The actual town of Oia is set at the top of a verrry steep, rocky hill which we could either walk the 300 and some steeeep steps or be transported, indeed in Greek tradition, by donkeys! Since we had a couple of hours to enjoy the scenery before the actual sunset we chose to walk thus sparing the poor donkeys as well as avoiding paying the 5 euro/person for a donkey…however, no one warned us that we would be left clinging onto stone walls of the switch-backs on the verge of tumbling down that very steep, rocky hill as we were nearly trampled by herds of donkeys…which we found to be astoundingly speedy as they practically sprinted by us, who knew?! So as we giggled our exhausted selves up the hill narrowly avoiding death-by-donkey in addition to the unexpected risk of death-by-overexposure-to-donkey-droppings, we concluded that evidently donkeys enjoy some good old fashioned hard labor ☺ After some eagerly awaited picture taking from the top, we did a little shopping with two British boys (Mitch and Dan) from our tour and then found a restaurant that was literally perched on the cliffs overlooking the town and the Sea where we thoroughly enjoyed some well-earned drinks and desserts and took some time to remove the donkey droppings from our sandals…
PS – I triiied to get some pictures of the donkeys but very quickly decided that you can all picture a Greek donkey in your heads instead of my risking my life for one ☺
Our last day in Santorini started off as a relaxing one and concluded with our frantic decision to get on an overnight ferry back to Athens. In the morning Elsa, Tyler, and I woke up and immediately went and asked our hostel about possible snorkeling tours, only to find out that the company they work with had 1 tour leaving that morning but it was already full (Ally chose to go relax on the beach that day). But the incredibly nice hostel lady then told us of another dive shop located down the beach only a few blocks from where we were staying. Sooo after running back to our room, frantically stripping and throwing on our swimming suits, we ran down the road to the beach only to arrive at the Mediterranean Dive Shop just as the van for their snorkel tour was backing down the driveway! We quickly asked them if they could take and after 3 minutes of handing over money, signing our lives away on some liability waiver, and trying on wet suits – we were on our way riding in the back of a truck with the snorkel and scuba dive guides.
The snorkeling trip was…one of the best days of our travels in Greece, hands down. Our tour was very small (10 people, 2 guides) and personable. I can now say I’ve snorkeled Hawaii, the Florida Keys, Australia, and Greece and between the 4 Greece was the most unique. Unlike the rainbows of colorful fish of Florida, the sea turtles of Hawaii, and the never-ending forests of colorful coral of the Great Barrier Reef, my snorkeling in Greece was in caves, yes caves! The rocky coast of Santorini makes for some uniquely carved caves and canyons that house jellies and other anemones on their walls. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about which safe water movement in the caves, as well as which jellies could be touched, which ones flowered, etc. Although my favorite part was snorkeling out of the caves and back into the open water because I got to watch as the pitched black waters below me became illuminated with the nearing sunlight, it was SO pretty! The tour took us to two caved areas and one cove full of coral where I saw a baby octopus! Snorkeling in the Mediterranean Sea was also an interesting experience because of the saltiness of the water. With waters more salty than anywhere I’ve ever been plus the use of a wet suite, I was SO buoyant. I could just bob there in the water completely motionless but not sinking, not even a little. One of our guides was just incredible, his knowledge and humor made the day even better. He’d spray us with the motor of the boat as he’d get the boat with it’s rear facing us then gun the engine thus drenching us with its back spray, he even brought me and Elsa each a shell from his scuba dive that day!
After the snorkel tour we concluded our time by doing some shopping where I got some BEAUTIFUL paintings of Santorini done by local artists, probably too many, but I couldn’t resist. That evening became another one of our frantic decisions to jump on a ferry as we found out that the only ferry leaving Santorini that would get us back to Athens early enough to get our luggage out of the storage center before it closed aaaand get to the airport before the Metro stopped running - - left about an hour after our inquiry about ferry schedules! Whooops. Sooo after some VERY quick showers and extremely frantic packing we made it to the ferry port 15 minutes prior to its departure (they recommend you arrive 1 hour early…). Our overnight ferry was another unexpected adventure in itself. Within the first hour we were kicked out of the seats we’d selected because for the first ferry ride since being in Greece, the tickets had assigned seat numbers - - where were ours you ask? We were assigned to the deck, yes outside, for our 10 hour overnight ferry. Rather than sleeping in the freezing cold salty spray of the Mediterranean, Ally and I curled up in a hallway just outside the women’s bathroom where women would stare at us and talk about us in other languages while we slept…something that made me suddenly very aware of being watched while I slept. The others (Elsa and Tyler) chose to sleep on a luggage rack, less space but also less foreigners pointing and staring…☺ One LONG night of no sleep later, we arrived in Athens around 5 a.m. where, after becoming completely disoriented by the fact that the ferry dropped us off on the opposite corner of the port than we’d left from, we spent the day drinking too much coffee and lounging in the passenger’s center at the Athens port after retrieving our stored luggage. On our way to the Athen’s airport (our home for the night before our flight to Rome), we stopped at our restaurant to enjoy one last Greek meal with a view of the Acropolis and some free yogurt and honey.
Hope you enjoyed the novel! Love,
Diana
Our decision to go to Crete as a means of getting to Santorini turned out to be a good one. Essentially, from Kythira we had 2 choices: the first was going back to the Athens port (Pireaus), spending the night there, and hoping they had a direct ferry to Santorini the next day (knowledge of the transportation here seems to be somewhat of a wild goose chase with everyone you ask giving you a different story about when/where buses or ferries go, etc.). Our second option was going from Kythira to the Kissamo port on Crete (the biggest of the Greek islands and known for its distinct Turkish/Greek culture mix), then somehow getting to the Iraklia port which just happens to be about 150 miles east down the coast from Kissamo. So, with a fear of taking the ferry back to Athens, finding out that there weren’t ferries the day we needed one to Santorini, and thus being stuck in Athens for the duration of our trip – we chose the Crete option instead, our logic being that if the worst happened and we couldn’t get to the Iraklia port and/or they too didn’t actually have a ferry to Santorini that day, we’d at least be on a new Greek island rather than back in Athens. (I’m trying to make this brief for the sake of all you readers, but this process really was a novel in itself, so bear with me ☺)
So, off we went to Crete – once again hopping on a ferry with zero knowledge of exactly what would happen when we got off. We arrived at the Kissamo port, late again around 11 p.m., and after talking to an informative taxi driver found out that the actual town of Kissamo was not only about a 4 mile hike away (which we immediately recognized as a bad idea (don’t worry Dad ☺) seeing as it was dark and the roads are about half as wide as they should be to accommodate European drivers), but the town only has 4 hotels – of course all of which were full on the night of a late-night ferry arrival. So…with the help of my new bible (a.k.a. the Lonely Planet guide to Mediterranean Europe), we had the taxi driver take us to the next major town, Hania, on what can only be described as a makes-you-want-to-dig-your-finger-nails-into-your-own-thighs-for-fear-of-either-hitting-a-moped-or-being-hit-by-a-bus-while-passing-a-moped kind of taxi ride. Upon our arrival in Hania, we began searching for a hotel listed in my guidebook, only to find ourselves completely disoriented by the Greek street names and somehow wandering an extremely busy touristy area in a daze. Well, evidently our lost-and-confused-and-desperate-for-sleep-must-be-Americans-gaze was quite obvious because we were quickly approached by a middle-aged woman asking us (in English, a sure sign they know you’re an obvious American) if we needed a room because she (once again, here’s our unbelievable luck) happened to own a hostel?! So sure enough, we followed her into her hostel and immediately accepted the quiet, well-ventilated, 4-bed room complete with our own bathroom and 2 giant fans that she offered us. Not only did this kind woman practically scrape us up off the street and give us beds and a shower, but she then showed us around the corner to her favorite gelato shop where we gorged ourselves on 3-flavor cones until we’d been comforted enough to fall asleep immediately. The next morning we easily found the bus station where they (our luck, once again) indeed had buses departing for Iraklia every half hour. So off we went on a 2.5 hour bus ride along the coast, which turned out to be an amazingly beautiful way to see the incredible scenery of Crete - mountains on the right, Mediterranean Sea on the left, I was so torn as to which way to turn my head ☺. When we got to Iraklia, the first two people we talked to about a ferry to Santorini seemed to respond with “Santorini, today?! Oh no, not possible.” But sure enough, our persistence paid off and we found that there was 1 ferry leaving for Santorini that afternoon! Ecstatic with the knowledge that we were actually going to make it to Santorini after all (at one point, a seemingly 50/50 chance of success), we booked our tickets.
Our ferry to Santorini was about an hour late in its departure (Europe is definitely going to teach me patience…), thus getting us to the island around 10 p.m. After some more confusion with the transportation, we hopped on a bus (for a rather terrifying ride up the switch-backs of Santorini) that was supposed to take us to our destination town of Perissa, where our hostel was waiting for us to check-in by 11. However, our bus made an unexpected stop in Fira, which is apparently in the opposite direction of Perissa, where we found out that to get to Perissa we’d have to switch to a bus that wouldn’t depart until 11:30, that’s precisely 30 minutes after check-in closes at the hostel for those of you not paying attention to the novel at this point…So, we ended up taking a taxi and arriving in Perissa around 10:56, at this point twitching from some combination of excitement that we had actually made it and jitters from another exciting taxi ride (seriously though, better than most American roller coasters). After a long journey, we treated ourselves to some snacks and drinks on the porch of our hostel where we got to know the others staying with us – 1 girl from Ireland, her 2 friends from England, and 1 friend from Canada (all of whom roomed with us), plus a conglomeration of others including some from Australia, Belgium, some Argentineans who roomed with us our second night, and Peter – a must-be-40-year-old hippy who does odd jobs for the hostel in exchange for living there and getting intoxicated quite regularly while meeting the new hostel-ers each night. Although I can’t give a good impression of Peter justice, a conversation with him generally goes something like this:
Peter: (with a googly-eyed expression)“Where are you from?”
Diana: “the US”
Peter: “You’re American?! I love America. I love you. Do you love me? No really, do you love me?”
Diana (with dumbfounded look) “Of course I love you Peter.”
Peter: “Do you really mean that?”
Diana: “Yes…I mean it.”
Peter: “Okay good. Do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No, sorry. I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “You don’t smoke?! But do you have some cigarettes?”
Diana: “No…I don’t smoke.”
Peter: “Yeah I know, but do you have some cigarettes?” - - shortly after, gets distracted and walks into the street while breaking into song…Like I said, that may not do his character justice, but I tried ☺
The next morning we got up early to catch a bus to the port for the full-day sailboat tour we’d booked at check-in. The tour was a little tourist-y, but worth every second. We saw so much of Santorini’s geographical wonders that there’s no way we could’ve seen otherwise, including:
1. A stop for a 1.5 hour hike up and around the Caldera (volcano island), an active volcano that once erupted thus forming what is now known as Santorini and leaving only 5% of its population at the time alive!
2. Swimming at a natural hot springs (Lamatica Nepa) that was located in a rock cove of a small island off the mainland of Santorini. The sailboat couldn’t get up to shore because of the shallow waters so we had to jump out and swim about 50 meters each way – kind of a funny experience to watch all the members of our boat just abandon ship off the side and “swim” (more like thrashing for some) to the hot springs to enjoy the hot (or more like bath-temperature) water with a surrounding mud bath which quickly became a mud fight for those of us uninterested in therapeutically rolling around in it☺
3. Lunch on the island Thirasia at an AMAZING seafood restaurant right on the water where I enjoyed my first Swordfish Souvlaki (kabob)
4. Our last stop was to watch the world-famous Santorini sunset in the northernmost town, Oia (where the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants takes place…). The actual town of Oia is set at the top of a verrry steep, rocky hill which we could either walk the 300 and some steeeep steps or be transported, indeed in Greek tradition, by donkeys! Since we had a couple of hours to enjoy the scenery before the actual sunset we chose to walk thus sparing the poor donkeys as well as avoiding paying the 5 euro/person for a donkey…however, no one warned us that we would be left clinging onto stone walls of the switch-backs on the verge of tumbling down that very steep, rocky hill as we were nearly trampled by herds of donkeys…which we found to be astoundingly speedy as they practically sprinted by us, who knew?! So as we giggled our exhausted selves up the hill narrowly avoiding death-by-donkey in addition to the unexpected risk of death-by-overexposure-to-donkey-droppings, we concluded that evidently donkeys enjoy some good old fashioned hard labor ☺ After some eagerly awaited picture taking from the top, we did a little shopping with two British boys (Mitch and Dan) from our tour and then found a restaurant that was literally perched on the cliffs overlooking the town and the Sea where we thoroughly enjoyed some well-earned drinks and desserts and took some time to remove the donkey droppings from our sandals…
PS – I triiied to get some pictures of the donkeys but very quickly decided that you can all picture a Greek donkey in your heads instead of my risking my life for one ☺
Our last day in Santorini started off as a relaxing one and concluded with our frantic decision to get on an overnight ferry back to Athens. In the morning Elsa, Tyler, and I woke up and immediately went and asked our hostel about possible snorkeling tours, only to find out that the company they work with had 1 tour leaving that morning but it was already full (Ally chose to go relax on the beach that day). But the incredibly nice hostel lady then told us of another dive shop located down the beach only a few blocks from where we were staying. Sooo after running back to our room, frantically stripping and throwing on our swimming suits, we ran down the road to the beach only to arrive at the Mediterranean Dive Shop just as the van for their snorkel tour was backing down the driveway! We quickly asked them if they could take and after 3 minutes of handing over money, signing our lives away on some liability waiver, and trying on wet suits – we were on our way riding in the back of a truck with the snorkel and scuba dive guides.
The snorkeling trip was…one of the best days of our travels in Greece, hands down. Our tour was very small (10 people, 2 guides) and personable. I can now say I’ve snorkeled Hawaii, the Florida Keys, Australia, and Greece and between the 4 Greece was the most unique. Unlike the rainbows of colorful fish of Florida, the sea turtles of Hawaii, and the never-ending forests of colorful coral of the Great Barrier Reef, my snorkeling in Greece was in caves, yes caves! The rocky coast of Santorini makes for some uniquely carved caves and canyons that house jellies and other anemones on their walls. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about which safe water movement in the caves, as well as which jellies could be touched, which ones flowered, etc. Although my favorite part was snorkeling out of the caves and back into the open water because I got to watch as the pitched black waters below me became illuminated with the nearing sunlight, it was SO pretty! The tour took us to two caved areas and one cove full of coral where I saw a baby octopus! Snorkeling in the Mediterranean Sea was also an interesting experience because of the saltiness of the water. With waters more salty than anywhere I’ve ever been plus the use of a wet suite, I was SO buoyant. I could just bob there in the water completely motionless but not sinking, not even a little. One of our guides was just incredible, his knowledge and humor made the day even better. He’d spray us with the motor of the boat as he’d get the boat with it’s rear facing us then gun the engine thus drenching us with its back spray, he even brought me and Elsa each a shell from his scuba dive that day!
After the snorkel tour we concluded our time by doing some shopping where I got some BEAUTIFUL paintings of Santorini done by local artists, probably too many, but I couldn’t resist. That evening became another one of our frantic decisions to jump on a ferry as we found out that the only ferry leaving Santorini that would get us back to Athens early enough to get our luggage out of the storage center before it closed aaaand get to the airport before the Metro stopped running - - left about an hour after our inquiry about ferry schedules! Whooops. Sooo after some VERY quick showers and extremely frantic packing we made it to the ferry port 15 minutes prior to its departure (they recommend you arrive 1 hour early…). Our overnight ferry was another unexpected adventure in itself. Within the first hour we were kicked out of the seats we’d selected because for the first ferry ride since being in Greece, the tickets had assigned seat numbers - - where were ours you ask? We were assigned to the deck, yes outside, for our 10 hour overnight ferry. Rather than sleeping in the freezing cold salty spray of the Mediterranean, Ally and I curled up in a hallway just outside the women’s bathroom where women would stare at us and talk about us in other languages while we slept…something that made me suddenly very aware of being watched while I slept. The others (Elsa and Tyler) chose to sleep on a luggage rack, less space but also less foreigners pointing and staring…☺ One LONG night of no sleep later, we arrived in Athens around 5 a.m. where, after becoming completely disoriented by the fact that the ferry dropped us off on the opposite corner of the port than we’d left from, we spent the day drinking too much coffee and lounging in the passenger’s center at the Athens port after retrieving our stored luggage. On our way to the Athen’s airport (our home for the night before our flight to Rome), we stopped at our restaurant to enjoy one last Greek meal with a view of the Acropolis and some free yogurt and honey.
Hope you enjoyed the novel! Love,
Diana
Thursday, August 28, 2008
A Little Taste of Paradise
Yasas (hello) from Kythira!
What does Diana’s first day on a Greek Island look like you ask? Well in a nutshell it can be perfectly and accurately characterized by: turquoise waters, post card sunsets, and the “Don’t worry, be happy” song playing in the background (seriously though, Greeks listen to that song obsessively). Well...at least that’s what Kythira was like after:
1. Being dropped off by a ferry at midnight, having no way to get to our hotel (which was in a city 10 miles away)
2. Hiking the seaside road to the nearest lighted town and
3. Begging an old woman who only spoke Greek to give us a room for the night.
In case you were wondering, the fact that she only spoke Greek was a pretty significant challenge seeing as the only Greek phrases we knew were “hello” and “do you speak English?” – to which she responded “no” therefore leaving us staring at her blankly not really knowing how to proceed with our begging…but apparently luck was on our side as her English-speaking daughter emerged and indeed gave us a good deal on a 4-bed room complete with a TV playing American shows in English and a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea - - seriously though, I haven’t decided whether it’s our American charm (not likely, they seem to equate all Americans with Bush here), exasperated expressions of persistence, or just luck – but throughout our travels of Greece, things seem to magically work out for us whenever we run into an obstacle (knock on wood).
After a rather interesting arrival, we’ve quickly decided that the island, Kythira (the southern most of the Ionian Islands just south of the mainland of Greece), was worth the effort in getting here. It seems to be the polar opposite of Athens (well, minus that everyone is still speaking Greek of course…) - - the presence of Mother Nature is it’s best quality, i.e. being outside doesn’t quite produce the same sense of claustrophobia and panic as in Athens, but rather an overwhelming sense of tranquility as I effortlessly bobbed around the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea with my jaw dropped as my eyes darted from the tropical appearance of the waters to the enormous hills dotted with white and blue houses. The sense of calm is definitely enhanced by the fact that there really is nothing to do on Kythira but swim, sun bathe, eat, hike, and have dysfunctional conversations with people in some mix of English and Greek (I haven’t decided whether to name the mixed language Genglish or Eeek, but I’ll let you know).
After our first night in the hotel near our arrival port (Diakofti), we got up in search of breakfast only to find that the power was out on the entire island and thus there wasn’t a single restaurant cooking any food – yet another issue I did not expect, a kind of a major one in an area that only uses fresh foods - - a.k.a. they don’t whip out the mac & cheese or cans of soup. So, after each having a juice box and some water for breakfast (yummy, I know) and finding out that the bus to our destination town (Potamos) where Ally has extended family just decides not to run some days, we decided we’d wait to call a taxi until the afternoon and spent the day on the beach in the meantime – a well needed recuperation day. So after a day spent getting our first Greek tans (and finding out that evidently true Greeks don’t use sunscreen over SPF 20, or at least don’t sell it), and enjoying some Greek salads while sitting on the sand (yep, on the sand) at a café (once the power came back on around 2 p.m.), we took a taxi (which happened to be a Mercedes, it was either that or a Jaguar) to the hotel Ally’s extended family owns in the town of Potamos, or rather isolated on a scenic vineyard-esc hill overlooking the town of Potamos.
Potamos was my favorite part of the trip so far. Our hotel, owned by Ally’s second cousin, was exactly what I’d pictured as the perfect Greek house; a white house with royal blue and yellow shutters, flowering-vine covered stone arches and paths, all of which was set on acres upon acres of land growing various edible things and overlooking the hills, valleys, and river surrounding the town. The town itself was about a 10-minute walk and contained a little bit of everything needed for its residents to have no reason to leave. Our favorites? The market full of only Kythira-grown fruits and veggies, the clothing store owned by an old Greek woman who would not only force us to try on the latest Greek fashions but would then proceed to spin us around vigorously as she straightened the clothing on us and then squealed at how amazing we looked (we seemed to disagree, but maybe the Greek fashions have yet to the hit the US, or maybe they just won’t hit? Either way, I came out of the experience with a new shirt), and lastly the bakery complete with fresh bread at all hours of the day and English-speaking Greek boys to help us choose the best loaf (Well, Tyler didn’t appreciate that part, but the rest of us found it to be a perk, haha).
Despite all of the glorious perks listed above, my favorite part of Potamos was simply that it was truly a Greek village. The way the streets run, all of the main shops are centered on one teeny tiny square that was constantly full of Greeks of all ages. It’s one of those towns where everyone knows everyone (well except us, haha). If one hotel ran out of rooms or a market out of some product, they’d call the one down the street and send customers there. It was so refreshing to experience a purely cooperation-based mentality; although there’re still the restaurant owners, all of whom seem to be older men claiming that their restaurant serves the best baklava, yogurt and honey, souvlaka, etc. (although we’re pretty sure that their restaurants shared kitchens? Haha). It was also quite obvious that we were the lone group of Americans to visit the town in quite some time. This morning we got pastries from the bakery and were sitting in the town square eating only to find that everyone else sitting in the square seemed to be staring at us and talking about us. Not only those in the square but word spread so quickly that shop owners would pop their heads out just to get a glance at us before popping back in just a quickly. Oh and the Greek boys from the bakery? They rode their motorcycles in circles around the square giving us the classic European male gaze. Despite the fact that we’re the first Americans the people of Potamos had seen in a while, they were incredibly hospitable. Some of the nicest people we’ve met. I think the fact that we were there with ties to Ally’s family made them readily accept us and thus eager to talk to us about what part of the US each of us is from, Obama (every Greek person we’ve met to bring up politics is incredibly anti-Bush and pro-Obama, fine by me), etc. They really enjoyed learning new English words or phrases from us as well. Ally’s second cousin (the one who owns the hotel) lived with many members of his family including his father-in-law who was very eager to please us and talk to us. He loved to take us through the hotel’s land showing us the best places to get pictures of the land or the town and he’d even grab our cameras from us insisting he take pictures of us together in each location. He introduced us to the hotel dogs, Nilo and Nilo’s mother, Menna. He, in particular, picked up a few words and phrases from us - - for example when we first started talking to him in English he’d always bring up a topic and then ask if we thought it was good. “Obama, Obama good? Yes?,” “Room, room good?,” “Greece, Greece good?” After a while he caught on that we’d reply with a “very good” and thus began his obsessive use of the word “very” in every single English sentence he attempted ☺
On our last morning in Potamos, Ally’s second cousin, Antoniko, drove us around the island from town to town showing us the homes of her relatives and stopping at bakery’s to buy us whatever we craved and/or show us off to others that he had Americans on the island. After meeting the rest of the family they all sent us on our way by giving us our stay free of charge, a gift (Greek calendar and a small sculpture to prop it us) for each of us, as well as some traditional Greek candies for the ferry ride. So, while we’re currently on the 3 hour ferry ride from Kythira to the largest Greek (and also Turkish) island, Crete, en route to Santorini - we left wishing we could stay longer and already thinking about going back to Kythira next time we’re in Europe.
That’s all for now, next time you hear from me I should be on the beaches of Santorini where we already have a sailing day trip and snorkeling planned through our hostel - - well that’s assuming that our island hop/overnight stay at Crete goes as planned ☺ Let the adventure continue!
Andio,
Diana
What does Diana’s first day on a Greek Island look like you ask? Well in a nutshell it can be perfectly and accurately characterized by: turquoise waters, post card sunsets, and the “Don’t worry, be happy” song playing in the background (seriously though, Greeks listen to that song obsessively). Well...at least that’s what Kythira was like after:
1. Being dropped off by a ferry at midnight, having no way to get to our hotel (which was in a city 10 miles away)
2. Hiking the seaside road to the nearest lighted town and
3. Begging an old woman who only spoke Greek to give us a room for the night.
In case you were wondering, the fact that she only spoke Greek was a pretty significant challenge seeing as the only Greek phrases we knew were “hello” and “do you speak English?” – to which she responded “no” therefore leaving us staring at her blankly not really knowing how to proceed with our begging…but apparently luck was on our side as her English-speaking daughter emerged and indeed gave us a good deal on a 4-bed room complete with a TV playing American shows in English and a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea - - seriously though, I haven’t decided whether it’s our American charm (not likely, they seem to equate all Americans with Bush here), exasperated expressions of persistence, or just luck – but throughout our travels of Greece, things seem to magically work out for us whenever we run into an obstacle (knock on wood).
After a rather interesting arrival, we’ve quickly decided that the island, Kythira (the southern most of the Ionian Islands just south of the mainland of Greece), was worth the effort in getting here. It seems to be the polar opposite of Athens (well, minus that everyone is still speaking Greek of course…) - - the presence of Mother Nature is it’s best quality, i.e. being outside doesn’t quite produce the same sense of claustrophobia and panic as in Athens, but rather an overwhelming sense of tranquility as I effortlessly bobbed around the salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea with my jaw dropped as my eyes darted from the tropical appearance of the waters to the enormous hills dotted with white and blue houses. The sense of calm is definitely enhanced by the fact that there really is nothing to do on Kythira but swim, sun bathe, eat, hike, and have dysfunctional conversations with people in some mix of English and Greek (I haven’t decided whether to name the mixed language Genglish or Eeek, but I’ll let you know).
After our first night in the hotel near our arrival port (Diakofti), we got up in search of breakfast only to find that the power was out on the entire island and thus there wasn’t a single restaurant cooking any food – yet another issue I did not expect, a kind of a major one in an area that only uses fresh foods - - a.k.a. they don’t whip out the mac & cheese or cans of soup. So, after each having a juice box and some water for breakfast (yummy, I know) and finding out that the bus to our destination town (Potamos) where Ally has extended family just decides not to run some days, we decided we’d wait to call a taxi until the afternoon and spent the day on the beach in the meantime – a well needed recuperation day. So after a day spent getting our first Greek tans (and finding out that evidently true Greeks don’t use sunscreen over SPF 20, or at least don’t sell it), and enjoying some Greek salads while sitting on the sand (yep, on the sand) at a café (once the power came back on around 2 p.m.), we took a taxi (which happened to be a Mercedes, it was either that or a Jaguar) to the hotel Ally’s extended family owns in the town of Potamos, or rather isolated on a scenic vineyard-esc hill overlooking the town of Potamos.
Potamos was my favorite part of the trip so far. Our hotel, owned by Ally’s second cousin, was exactly what I’d pictured as the perfect Greek house; a white house with royal blue and yellow shutters, flowering-vine covered stone arches and paths, all of which was set on acres upon acres of land growing various edible things and overlooking the hills, valleys, and river surrounding the town. The town itself was about a 10-minute walk and contained a little bit of everything needed for its residents to have no reason to leave. Our favorites? The market full of only Kythira-grown fruits and veggies, the clothing store owned by an old Greek woman who would not only force us to try on the latest Greek fashions but would then proceed to spin us around vigorously as she straightened the clothing on us and then squealed at how amazing we looked (we seemed to disagree, but maybe the Greek fashions have yet to the hit the US, or maybe they just won’t hit? Either way, I came out of the experience with a new shirt), and lastly the bakery complete with fresh bread at all hours of the day and English-speaking Greek boys to help us choose the best loaf (Well, Tyler didn’t appreciate that part, but the rest of us found it to be a perk, haha).
Despite all of the glorious perks listed above, my favorite part of Potamos was simply that it was truly a Greek village. The way the streets run, all of the main shops are centered on one teeny tiny square that was constantly full of Greeks of all ages. It’s one of those towns where everyone knows everyone (well except us, haha). If one hotel ran out of rooms or a market out of some product, they’d call the one down the street and send customers there. It was so refreshing to experience a purely cooperation-based mentality; although there’re still the restaurant owners, all of whom seem to be older men claiming that their restaurant serves the best baklava, yogurt and honey, souvlaka, etc. (although we’re pretty sure that their restaurants shared kitchens? Haha). It was also quite obvious that we were the lone group of Americans to visit the town in quite some time. This morning we got pastries from the bakery and were sitting in the town square eating only to find that everyone else sitting in the square seemed to be staring at us and talking about us. Not only those in the square but word spread so quickly that shop owners would pop their heads out just to get a glance at us before popping back in just a quickly. Oh and the Greek boys from the bakery? They rode their motorcycles in circles around the square giving us the classic European male gaze. Despite the fact that we’re the first Americans the people of Potamos had seen in a while, they were incredibly hospitable. Some of the nicest people we’ve met. I think the fact that we were there with ties to Ally’s family made them readily accept us and thus eager to talk to us about what part of the US each of us is from, Obama (every Greek person we’ve met to bring up politics is incredibly anti-Bush and pro-Obama, fine by me), etc. They really enjoyed learning new English words or phrases from us as well. Ally’s second cousin (the one who owns the hotel) lived with many members of his family including his father-in-law who was very eager to please us and talk to us. He loved to take us through the hotel’s land showing us the best places to get pictures of the land or the town and he’d even grab our cameras from us insisting he take pictures of us together in each location. He introduced us to the hotel dogs, Nilo and Nilo’s mother, Menna. He, in particular, picked up a few words and phrases from us - - for example when we first started talking to him in English he’d always bring up a topic and then ask if we thought it was good. “Obama, Obama good? Yes?,” “Room, room good?,” “Greece, Greece good?” After a while he caught on that we’d reply with a “very good” and thus began his obsessive use of the word “very” in every single English sentence he attempted ☺
On our last morning in Potamos, Ally’s second cousin, Antoniko, drove us around the island from town to town showing us the homes of her relatives and stopping at bakery’s to buy us whatever we craved and/or show us off to others that he had Americans on the island. After meeting the rest of the family they all sent us on our way by giving us our stay free of charge, a gift (Greek calendar and a small sculpture to prop it us) for each of us, as well as some traditional Greek candies for the ferry ride. So, while we’re currently on the 3 hour ferry ride from Kythira to the largest Greek (and also Turkish) island, Crete, en route to Santorini - we left wishing we could stay longer and already thinking about going back to Kythira next time we’re in Europe.
That’s all for now, next time you hear from me I should be on the beaches of Santorini where we already have a sailing day trip and snorkeling planned through our hostel - - well that’s assuming that our island hop/overnight stay at Crete goes as planned ☺ Let the adventure continue!
Andio,
Diana
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