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
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Opa!
Greece Part I - Athens
Being in a foreign country, especially one that uses its own alphabet provides ample opportunity for the apparently innate human process of adjustment to new customs. For our 10 hour flight from the US to Athens I sat plastered between the window of the plane and a ….. shall we call her “big boned” Greek lady only a few years older than myself, I found myself in awe how different her and I were. As I observed her writing in her Louis Vuitton journal (yep, a designer brand journal/notebook, you can only imagine what the rest of her looked like) and stared at her in wonder at the number of pounds of make-up she seemed to be applying every 3 hours with enough vigorous motion to cause our row of seats to shake violently - - I thought about the wonderfully comfortable sweatpants and flip-flops that decorated my own very jet-lagged body and decided that European culture would most likely be a little bit outside of my very Americanized and evidently very casual lifestyle. While the days since our arrival have been far more filled with designer brand knock offs than anything like what I observed on that plane, they’ve definitely required a little adaptation to say the least. My friends (Ally, Elsa, and Tyler) and I have been in Greece for 3 days and are now starting to realize just how much each of us has been forced to adapt what were once the norms that allowed us to comfortably and effortlessly think, communicate, and behave. My favorite adaptation? “Opa,” otherwise known as my adopted replacement for the Minnesotan phrase “uff-da.”
We begin our Greek adventure in Athens, an extremely vibrant, overpopulated metropolis consisting of a seemingly odd mixture of touristy t-shirt stands, nearly all of which have an old Greek man offering “a special price for you,” blended with immense opportunities to experience some of the world’s most famous ancient Greek ruins and culture. Our first day in Athens can be characterized by two words: overly stimulating. We took the Athens “Metro,” their version of a subway from the airport to the Plaka region of central Athens where our first stop, Hostel Zeus, will accommodate us for the first 4 days of our time in Greece. Getting from the airport to the hostel was…a blur. I can only imagine what people’s impressions were as they observed 4 jet lagged and culture shocked American college students each complete with enough luggage to last them for 4 months sweating profusely as we nearly rolled back down each escalator we attempted to clamber onto, dragged our rolling suite cases across the not-so-friendly cobble-stone streets all in desperate attempts to find the correct Greek street name (remember, we’re going straight to our school in Rome after our tour of Greece and thus have to drag everything for living in Italy until Christmas with us through Greece, sounds fun right?!). Anyway, we made it to Hostel Zeus where the 4 of us have been residing in our unairconditioned, dorm-room sized accommodations, complete with what we recently discovered to be the (very lively at 4 a.m. consistently) prostitute/drug dealing district of Athens practically at our doorstep.
***Sidenote #1: for those of you trying to picture Diana + friends accidently wandering through a block filled with prostitutes (some of whom chose to where no pants at all) then ducking into an ally just so that we didn’t have to walk back up the same block onnnly to find that the ally plopped us into the drug dealing district of Athens where a small Greek man approached me and Ally flashing a laser light at us and whispering something about marijuana…you’re right, we stuck out like sore thumbs as we nervously giggled our way back to familiar streets vowing never to turn left again when leaving Hostel Zeus, always turn right, always.
Since our first day in Athens, our coping ability for the distinct methods of chaos that can only define this city has increased dramatically. Problem solving skills and not panicking in the face of potential disaster have proved to be two very useful skills in the last few days. For example, catching onto local knowledge and tactics can be very useful in the case of ATMs consistently lacking any cash. Yes, Greek ATMs are, what we now know as, notoriously known for running out of any and all cash by the weekend and not being refilled until sometime midweek – a fact that comes as a bit of a shock to anyone used to America where cash flows from ATMs like water from a faucet. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that with a little persistence and a little advice, I found that ATMs in less touristy areas are more likely to have maintain a stock of cash well into the weekend (something I discovered after only one long day as a penniless Athens tourist).
Obsessive observational skills have also come in handy in our adaptation to Greek culture. We have learned how to correctly and successfully deal with situations by watching the local Greek’s behaviors and mimicking them completely. For example, each time we eat at a restaurant we are 1. Bombarded by men trying to sell designer knock offs, touristy gimmicks, etc. The answer? Avoid eye contact completely or shake your head “no” vigorously, we are also 2. Faced with the issue of how to receive and pay the bill for our meals in less than the common European mealtime of 3 hours. The Answer? We’ve found that most restaurants bring the bill quickly and then disappear when you’re ready to pay, thus you must wave the bill ferociously at the waiter until he nods and slowwwwly moves to actually collect your money.
***Sidenote #2: when in Athens, become a “regular” at a restaurant (a.k.a. go more than once), because nearly all of them are family owned and operated and thus when they recognize you, you’ll get unlimited amounts of free yogurt and honey (most amazing Greek desert, everrr), just FYI for those of you as food-motivated as I am.
Other issues only solved by observing the Greek ways? Crossing the street without being hit by at least 3 mopeds. The answer? Be pushy enough to take less than 5 full minutes to cross, yet cautious enough to not actually have your toes crushed by a moped…confusing, yet something you can only master through observation.
The conclusion of our time in Athens consisted of what I can only call the most extreme tourist day everrrr: a.k.a. experiencing all of Athens greatest treasures in one 6 hour, 15 mile walk on what must have been the hottest (in temperature) day here. The walk began in our journey from the Plaka district of Athens to the Syntagma district, a journey that involved more confusion with any sort of sense of direction than expected. But getting lost isn’t all bad, it’s what brought us to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs building where we watched the noon “changing of the guard” ritual through Syntagma Square. Surrounding the building is the National Garden, a sort of botanical garden walk that we were extremely happy find that the garden was not only free to enter and was shaded from the blazing hot Mediterranean sunshine, but led us directly to the Olympic Stadium, the first (intentional) stop on our tourist day. Following the stadium we stumbled upon Hadrian’s Gate as well as what’s left of the ancient Greek Ministry of Culture on our way to the beginning of the huuuge hill up to the Acropolis and Pantheon. Our hike up that hill was a long one beginning in some very Greek residential neighborhoods (picture the white houses with teeny tiny windy walkways between them) where we followed some hand painted signs that sure enough led us to the Acropolis. The Acropolis was…incredible! I had high expectations as we approached it just based off of it’s reputation and the extreme aspects of the hike up, but it still surpassed whatever expectations I had - - such beautiful ancient ruins and the most amazing view of all of Athens even as far as the sea. So next time you’re all in Athens, the Acropolis should be your first stop - - just bring water, lots and lots and lots of water, in preparation for sweating more than you ever have in your entire life ☺
From here on out our journey takes us through the Greek islands…tonight at 5p.m. we get on a ferry to the island Kythira where we’ll meet some of the family of my friend Ally before heading to Santorini (plans on how to get to Santorini have yet to be set, however swimming or buying a paddle boat built for 4 have been suggested, so I’ll keep you all posted) for our remaining days in Greece! I’ll keep you posted on where this Greek adventure takes us, in the meantime please keep in touch!
Opa! (a.k.a. uff-da, wow, celebrate!) We finally made it to Greece!
Love from the land of Baklava,
Diana
Being in a foreign country, especially one that uses its own alphabet provides ample opportunity for the apparently innate human process of adjustment to new customs. For our 10 hour flight from the US to Athens I sat plastered between the window of the plane and a ….. shall we call her “big boned” Greek lady only a few years older than myself, I found myself in awe how different her and I were. As I observed her writing in her Louis Vuitton journal (yep, a designer brand journal/notebook, you can only imagine what the rest of her looked like) and stared at her in wonder at the number of pounds of make-up she seemed to be applying every 3 hours with enough vigorous motion to cause our row of seats to shake violently - - I thought about the wonderfully comfortable sweatpants and flip-flops that decorated my own very jet-lagged body and decided that European culture would most likely be a little bit outside of my very Americanized and evidently very casual lifestyle. While the days since our arrival have been far more filled with designer brand knock offs than anything like what I observed on that plane, they’ve definitely required a little adaptation to say the least. My friends (Ally, Elsa, and Tyler) and I have been in Greece for 3 days and are now starting to realize just how much each of us has been forced to adapt what were once the norms that allowed us to comfortably and effortlessly think, communicate, and behave. My favorite adaptation? “Opa,” otherwise known as my adopted replacement for the Minnesotan phrase “uff-da.”
We begin our Greek adventure in Athens, an extremely vibrant, overpopulated metropolis consisting of a seemingly odd mixture of touristy t-shirt stands, nearly all of which have an old Greek man offering “a special price for you,” blended with immense opportunities to experience some of the world’s most famous ancient Greek ruins and culture. Our first day in Athens can be characterized by two words: overly stimulating. We took the Athens “Metro,” their version of a subway from the airport to the Plaka region of central Athens where our first stop, Hostel Zeus, will accommodate us for the first 4 days of our time in Greece. Getting from the airport to the hostel was…a blur. I can only imagine what people’s impressions were as they observed 4 jet lagged and culture shocked American college students each complete with enough luggage to last them for 4 months sweating profusely as we nearly rolled back down each escalator we attempted to clamber onto, dragged our rolling suite cases across the not-so-friendly cobble-stone streets all in desperate attempts to find the correct Greek street name (remember, we’re going straight to our school in Rome after our tour of Greece and thus have to drag everything for living in Italy until Christmas with us through Greece, sounds fun right?!). Anyway, we made it to Hostel Zeus where the 4 of us have been residing in our unairconditioned, dorm-room sized accommodations, complete with what we recently discovered to be the (very lively at 4 a.m. consistently) prostitute/drug dealing district of Athens practically at our doorstep.
***Sidenote #1: for those of you trying to picture Diana + friends accidently wandering through a block filled with prostitutes (some of whom chose to where no pants at all) then ducking into an ally just so that we didn’t have to walk back up the same block onnnly to find that the ally plopped us into the drug dealing district of Athens where a small Greek man approached me and Ally flashing a laser light at us and whispering something about marijuana…you’re right, we stuck out like sore thumbs as we nervously giggled our way back to familiar streets vowing never to turn left again when leaving Hostel Zeus, always turn right, always.
Since our first day in Athens, our coping ability for the distinct methods of chaos that can only define this city has increased dramatically. Problem solving skills and not panicking in the face of potential disaster have proved to be two very useful skills in the last few days. For example, catching onto local knowledge and tactics can be very useful in the case of ATMs consistently lacking any cash. Yes, Greek ATMs are, what we now know as, notoriously known for running out of any and all cash by the weekend and not being refilled until sometime midweek – a fact that comes as a bit of a shock to anyone used to America where cash flows from ATMs like water from a faucet. Anyway, you’ll be pleased to know that with a little persistence and a little advice, I found that ATMs in less touristy areas are more likely to have maintain a stock of cash well into the weekend (something I discovered after only one long day as a penniless Athens tourist).
Obsessive observational skills have also come in handy in our adaptation to Greek culture. We have learned how to correctly and successfully deal with situations by watching the local Greek’s behaviors and mimicking them completely. For example, each time we eat at a restaurant we are 1. Bombarded by men trying to sell designer knock offs, touristy gimmicks, etc. The answer? Avoid eye contact completely or shake your head “no” vigorously, we are also 2. Faced with the issue of how to receive and pay the bill for our meals in less than the common European mealtime of 3 hours. The Answer? We’ve found that most restaurants bring the bill quickly and then disappear when you’re ready to pay, thus you must wave the bill ferociously at the waiter until he nods and slowwwwly moves to actually collect your money.
***Sidenote #2: when in Athens, become a “regular” at a restaurant (a.k.a. go more than once), because nearly all of them are family owned and operated and thus when they recognize you, you’ll get unlimited amounts of free yogurt and honey (most amazing Greek desert, everrr), just FYI for those of you as food-motivated as I am.
Other issues only solved by observing the Greek ways? Crossing the street without being hit by at least 3 mopeds. The answer? Be pushy enough to take less than 5 full minutes to cross, yet cautious enough to not actually have your toes crushed by a moped…confusing, yet something you can only master through observation.
The conclusion of our time in Athens consisted of what I can only call the most extreme tourist day everrrr: a.k.a. experiencing all of Athens greatest treasures in one 6 hour, 15 mile walk on what must have been the hottest (in temperature) day here. The walk began in our journey from the Plaka district of Athens to the Syntagma district, a journey that involved more confusion with any sort of sense of direction than expected. But getting lost isn’t all bad, it’s what brought us to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs building where we watched the noon “changing of the guard” ritual through Syntagma Square. Surrounding the building is the National Garden, a sort of botanical garden walk that we were extremely happy find that the garden was not only free to enter and was shaded from the blazing hot Mediterranean sunshine, but led us directly to the Olympic Stadium, the first (intentional) stop on our tourist day. Following the stadium we stumbled upon Hadrian’s Gate as well as what’s left of the ancient Greek Ministry of Culture on our way to the beginning of the huuuge hill up to the Acropolis and Pantheon. Our hike up that hill was a long one beginning in some very Greek residential neighborhoods (picture the white houses with teeny tiny windy walkways between them) where we followed some hand painted signs that sure enough led us to the Acropolis. The Acropolis was…incredible! I had high expectations as we approached it just based off of it’s reputation and the extreme aspects of the hike up, but it still surpassed whatever expectations I had - - such beautiful ancient ruins and the most amazing view of all of Athens even as far as the sea. So next time you’re all in Athens, the Acropolis should be your first stop - - just bring water, lots and lots and lots of water, in preparation for sweating more than you ever have in your entire life ☺
From here on out our journey takes us through the Greek islands…tonight at 5p.m. we get on a ferry to the island Kythira where we’ll meet some of the family of my friend Ally before heading to Santorini (plans on how to get to Santorini have yet to be set, however swimming or buying a paddle boat built for 4 have been suggested, so I’ll keep you all posted) for our remaining days in Greece! I’ll keep you posted on where this Greek adventure takes us, in the meantime please keep in touch!
Opa! (a.k.a. uff-da, wow, celebrate!) We finally made it to Greece!
Love from the land of Baklava,
Diana
Sunday, August 17, 2008
La mia casa Italiana!
Ciao amici!
After receiving my Italian Visa in July, it started to feel like all progress towards actually departing for Europe seemed to slow and that the big day would never come - - not to worry! Now things are moving plenty quickly. Within the past week I've made huuuuge strides and now find myself wondering how this summer could've possibly gone so quickly?! I leave in 3 days (yikes!) for Greece (yay!) and I can finally say this whole adventure is starting to feel real.
The most exciting piece of news I have thus far is that my final packet full of information for my arrival in Rome finalllllly arrived from my university! I should have known it would come this late in the summer - - after all it's all part of the Italian lifestyle: no sense of time or what's considered "late" compared to what's "on time." A definite change from the American culture of living by the clock - I look forward to adapting to a more laid back culture where being late isn't frowned upon :) Anyway, within my much anticipated packet was all my housing information complete with the address of my Italian apartment and a list of the 3 other girls I'll be living with - one of which is a good friend of mine from DU!! The best news of all is that I'll be living on Via Carini (via = street in Italian), which Google Earth tells me is only a few blocks from my university! So needless to say, I was extremely excited to find out that I won't have to master Roman public transportation in order to get to class, soccer (my school has a soccer team I'll be playing on!), etc. daily. That's all for now! I'm off to enjoy the last few days of my summer at home in Minnesota and hope that all of the packing I have left to do won't end up being too frantic of a process. Wish me luck and hope that the next time you hear from me I won't be complaining of bed-bug bites in Athens, Greece (evidently it's an issue in Athen's hostels...so I'm told...;)
Arrivederci,
Diana
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