Greece – The end

 

After 10 days in Greece, our journey had come to an end.  From Hydra, Nisha and I took a short hydrofoil ride back to Athens, and enjoyed one last delicious Greek meal of Gyros and Tzatziki.  We bought some last minute souvenirs and then headed to the airport that evening.  Our flight was not until early the next morning, but taxis from the city out to the airport were absurdly expensive.  To avoid this, we took the last subway out to the airport and slept there.  Many people had the same idea, actually it seemed that the airport was where it’s at, it could have been mistaken for a party there.  After a mostly sleepness night, we flew back to Zurich for another long layover.  We headed into the city once again, browsed the stores including the 3 H&M’s in the span of 2 blocks, decided that we wanted Thai food but settled for Chinese, and then headed back to the airport and napped there.  It was then back to Venice, where I spent the night repacking my bags, and then left the next morning back to the U.S.

Random Bits of Venice Part III

Some of my favorite things….

• Eating Gelato

• Eating Fruit Cups right before I crossed over the Rialto Bridge everyday on the way to work

• The random performers including this woman dancing with her puppet mouse to Jay-Z

• Cute dogs

• Shopping at the various coops after work.  This is where we bought our groceries.

• Our awesome ikea-ed out apartment

• Wandering around, finding new nooks, getting lost in the great city of Venezia!

Greece- Hydra

From Napflion, Nisha and I headed to our last small port town, Hydra, before heading back to the big city of Athens.  There were several obstacles in the way of us getting from Napfilon to Hydra.  Despite all of our advance planning, we weren’t exactly sure how to get from point A to point B.  To make things worse, I was incapacitated by food poisoning, but Nisha saved the day!  We had to take two busses, and a boat to our next destination.  I don’t remember much as I was napping the sick feeling away, but I do recall that the short boat ride to Hydra was super cute.  Throughout our Greek adventures we had been on high capacity ships and smaller hydrofoils, but this was an actual boat.  It was captained by a picturesque leathery tanned old man, with a white grizzled beard, a striped tank top, shorts, and a captains hat.  We nestled into the boat amongst locals and made our way across the water to Hydra, a popular day-trip location from Athens.  I have a thing about walkable cities, so I liked Hydra since no motor vehicles are allowed.  Nisha and I enjoyed dinner and a sunset along the waterfront, and took this day to relax from our grand Greek trip.

Greece - Nafplion

From Olympia we took busses through the countryside past wind turbines to Nafplion, a seaport town.  On the way there we also passed through a city called Argos which evoked memories of my childhood computer-game playing days.  I used to play a game called Wrath of the Gods, and the main character had to overcome various challenges based on greek myths, one of which was located in Argos.  Nafplion was a small town, very relaxed, and we stayed in a cute hotel.

In the evening we headed over to Epidaurus, a world heritage site, with a marvelous theater known for not only holding 15,000 people but also having such amazing acoustics that people in the back row of the theater can still hear the performance perfectly.  Even more amazing, this theater was built in 4 BC, and is still used today to hold performances sans modern audio equipment.

We saw a performance of Electra by Sophocles, click on the link to read a summary of the play (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra_(Sophocles)).  Basically in the past, Electra protected her twin brother Orestes from her murderous mother by sending him away.  The play explores Electra’s emotions about her dead father, and Orestes returning to exact his revenge.  As the play was in Greek, Nisha and I could not understand anything the characters were singing, but the actors were so emotionally charged that the performance was still very beautiful.  It was equally awesome to be sitting in the same theater that ancient Greeks also sat in to watch Greek tragedies.

You know when you’re in a room and one person breaks the silence by coughing, and then everyone else capitalizes on the opportunity to cough as well?  Likewise at Epidaurus, it was hot, sweaty, and we were sitting on cushions. Any readjustment of one’s seated position caused a squeaking sound.  Once one person decided to readjust, the whole theater decided to as well, and with the awesome acoustics of the Epidaurus theater, it temporarily overtook the performance.

Greece - Olympia

I really enjoy watching the modern day Olympics, both summer and winter, so to go to Olympia, the original site of the Olympics and learn more about the history of the games was a thrill for me!

An early wake up and 2 trains down into the Peloponnese Peninsula, and we arrived in Olympia, a one-street wonder of a town.  Our hotel was literally right across from the train station, or hut rather.  Off to the museum and sites!

First of all, in the archaeological museum they had awesome artifacts.  I was particularly enthralled by the abundance of Griffin pieces in the museum. Griffins have the body of a lion, head and wings of an eagle, and were believed to be powerful creatures.  I have so many pictures of all the Griffins I saw.

Second, my absolute favorite part of the Olympia Archaeological site was running in the original Olympic Stadium.  Below I am standing in the Crypt, arched passageway through which the athletes entered the Stadium.  Even though I despise running, like a true nerd, I decided to run the length of the stadium to emulate the foot races held there centuries ago.  While the stadium is nothing more than a oval shaped patch of sand, I got a kick out of lining up at the original marked starting line, and sweating my way across the dirt just like the original olympians!

Standing in the Crypt, mentally preparing for my run

Julia, the Olympian? 

 

The finish line!

Unfortunately, victory was not so sweet.  The wind and dusty field got the best of my camera, and sand got into my lens and burned my motor out.  Not to be deterred on our journey, our last stop was at the Olympia Sports Museum where Nisha and I filled our head with even more knowledge about the Olympic games.

Greece – Crete

From Santorini we boarded a large ship and made our way to Herkalion, Crete.  We walked to our hotel which was a good 45 minutes away through some of the main streets which true to my liking were void of cars, and pedestrian only.  Interestingly enough, the Venetians during their control of Crete built huge city walls around Herkalion.  We passed through these walls right before reaching our hotel. The venetian influences never end!  There was also a little Venice in Mykonos, and Napflion, a city we visited later in our trip also had a Venetian era.

The next morning we headed up to enjoy breakfast on the hotel balcony when Nisha and I felt someone staring at us.  I ignored the feeling at first, as we usually got stared at a lot in Italy and Greece, but then turned my head and saw….Paola, a co-worker of mine from my company in Italy, with her jaw dropped in surprise!  What are the chances of being in the same country, same island, same hotel, and eating breakfast at the same time?  Paola and her boyfriend graciously offered us a ride to Knossos, the island’s famous archeological site, since they were also planning to go there and they had a rental car!

 Outside of Knossos-Nisha, myself, and Paola 

Knossos is thought to be the former political center of the Minoan Civilization.  It was a cool site compared to other ruins we visited in Greece since they rebuilt a lot of site so it looked more than just a bunch of eroded stones.  It left less to the imagination, for better or worse.  There were lots of cool rooms, frescoes, columns, pottery, and structures at the site – explained in detail by our petite but enthusiastic tour guide (who Nisha also later saw shuffling around a few days later in the Athens airport!). 

After Knossos we walked around the city some more, and then headed to the airport to go back to Athens.  My e-ticket was robbed of all of its advanced technology at the ticket counter.  The airline employee pulled out a carbon copy machine and gave me a really antiquated ticket in exchange.  Oh well, as long as it works?

Greece – Santorini

Oh Santorini, my favorite island of the Greek cyclades, where to begin?!? This post has a ton of pictures to demonstrate my love for the place.

1. Santorini is a beautiful archipelago of volcanic islands.  I liked the cool dryish brown but rich soil landscape of the island.  It reminded me of this volcanic island I visited in the Galapagos.  There are also several famous beaches – black, red, and white beach with corresponding sand colors.

1. I loved the way the white-washed houses perched on top and on the side of the island.

 

• Nisha and I woke up super early to walk from Oia along the caldera path and enjoy the sunrise. We stopped at a bakery to grab some our favorite spinach pie spiral pastries.  Even though delicious, this attracted the attention of a dog, and soon another dog, and soon a herd of dogs was following us down the street!  They got excited an rammed into Nisha, injuring her already weak ankle.  We walked around a little more and then got a doctor to wrap up her ankle in Thira.     

1. We stayed at a really cute and cheap hostel in Oia.  Oia as a town is known for its beautiful sunsets, has ton of adorable streets and shops, and lots of picturesque churches.

1. In Thira, the capital of Santorini, there are more touristy shops, but also a cable car down to a port, which Nisha and I took.  To get back up the side of the caldera, we rode donkeys back up the 588 steps.  I was a bit hesitant to ride a donkey, but it was actually really fun!  The donkeys would walk really slow up the steps, and then all the sudden decide to charge up the stairs.  Sometimes they would walk right into walls or stop and eat shrubbery on the side of the path.  They couldn’t seem seem to make up their mind!

• We had to catch our next boat to Crete, but the bus from Oia was running way behind schedule, and we were going to be cutting it close.  As we descended down from the cliff to the port, we could be a boat, and hoped that it wouldn’t depart without us, or else the whole rest of our whole itinerary would be messed up.  We ran off the bus and grabbed our bags to find out that it wasn’t even our boat! Our boat pulled into the port half and hour later.

Greece - Mykonos

I feel like Mykonos and I got off to a bad introduction, so hopefully someday I will return to the Island and it will redeem itself in my eyes.  Nisha and I headed to over to the Athens port where all the ships depart for the various islands.  We boarded a large boat and were on our way!  We didn’t exactly understand the announcements, since Greek sounds like nothing I’ve never heard before, but knew what time we were supposed to arrive at Mykonos.  When the time arrived, we got off the boat and searched for our shuttle to our hostel.  After being constantly accosted for 10 minutes by people trying to get us stay in their hotels while looking for the bus, a girl asked us what were looking for, and we told her we were looking for the Paradise Beach Hotel shuttle.  She yelled at us that we were on the wrong island, and to get back on the boat!  We temporarily panicked and ran back to our boat.  Right after we reboarded, the ship departed, and when we returned to our seats the men sitting next to us laughed.  Apparently, our boat was running behind schedule, and from then on we listened more carefully for the correct announcement.

Finally, we arrived in Mykonos, and caught the shuttle to our hostel.  It was not what I was expecting.  It was a combination sprawling campsite, cheap hostel rooms, and air conditioned hotel rooms.  The cheap hostel rooms were situated right next to the rowdy campsite and were literally pieces of wood put up to form a box, painted white, with two bare-bones beds, and a screen window.  The bathrooms were gross, and there were drunken parties going on at the beach.  The look on Nisha’s face captures my sentiment.

After not being able to sleep well, we ventured to the nearby beach the next morning.  Paradise Beach?  Questionable.  We headed back to the Mykonos port, saw famous Mykonos Pelicans and Windmills, and headed off to the more likable Santorini on a hydrofoil!

Greece- Delphi

To start off our Greece adventure, Nisha and I visited the first of several Greek UNESCO World Heritage Sites - Delphi.  As usual we woke up early in order to ship off to our destination and slept on the way.  We had some trouble finding the bus depot since it was located off the Athens map we had.  Even with the directions the hostel desk worker gave us, we got lost, and the people on the street did not speak any English.  We made it though, and a few hours later we amidst mountains and were in Delphi!

Standing in front of the Treasury of Athens.

Delphi is important as it was the location of the most important oracle in the Greek culture, the place where Apollo was worshipped, and was thought to be the center of the universe.

Greece – Athens

For our first real day in Athens we first visited the National Archaeological Museum in Morning.  There were so many archaeological artifacts from Greek history, it was equally overwhelming and equally awesome.  In the afternoon we visited the famous Acropolis.  Sitting upon a hill in Athens, the Acropolis is composed of a series of impressive temples and ancient structures.  The most famous structure upon the hill is the Parthenon, aka the temple of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and reason.  I’ve always dreamed of seeing the Parthenon, so it was pretty awe-inspiring to stand in front of it. 

During our various time in Athens, Nisha and I also explored the Roman Agora, the Ancient Agora, and walked around the nearby areas of Plaka, Thissio, and Monastiraki which were touristy,but cute and very walkable.

An assortment of photos – starting top left and going clockwise-View of the vast sprawl of Athens, Atop the Acropolis, Nisha in front of the National Museum, and the Theatre of Dionysus

Greece - Beginnings

To cap off our Summer in Italy and since the whole country shuts down while everyone goes on vacation for the month of August, Nisha and I decided to go to Greece for 10 days!  I’ve always been fascinated by mythology and Greek History, and this trip was a perfect complement to my time in Italy.

After a last day at work, we headed to the Venice Airport and were on our way in the wrong direction for an overnight layover in Zurich.  I was very impressed at how easy it was to get from the airport into the city, only a short rail trip, and was once again impressed how nice everyone was when we asked a women for directions.  We then took a tram to the hostel, which of course was really nice.  I hope to return to Switzerland for a real trip sometime as I heard all the hostels and sights are nice.

The next morning we headed back to the airport, and were off to Athens!  We took the rail into the city, which was quite far away, picked up our boat tickets for our island hopping part of our trip, dropped off our bags, and were off to explore!  We grabbed our first greek meal in Plaka, the overly touristy area, and walked around that area a bit before heading back to our hostel.

First picture taken in Greece! 

Our Itinerary for our trip:

• 8/2 - Zurich
• 8/3 – Athens
• 8/4 - Delphi
• 8/5 – Mykonos
• 8/6 – Santorini
• 8/7 – Crete
• 8/8 – Athens
• 8/9 - Olympia
• 8/10 – Nafplion
• 8/11 – Hydra
• 8/12 – Athens
• 8/13 - Zurich
  

Florence 07/30/07

So this weekend I went to Florence! I was originally going to go just for the weekend, but I decided to go early on Friday. I arrived in the morning and saw the Bargello, a sculpture museum, the science museum, the Duomo, climbed to the top of the Duomo, went shopping and bought a white dress, and chilled out in the Boboli gardens.

That evening when I returned my to my hostel room I met my roomates who were 2 brutish girls both named Jess. They invited me out to dinner with them and we went to this delicious restaurant. I ate this yummy chicken with truffle cream and avocado. There was this group of Italian men next to our table so we asked them where was a good place to out and go dancing. They suggested a club which was fun because it was a club full of Italian people, and no other English speaking people. There was just the right amount of people there and they were playing good music to dance to. Then all of the sudden the dance floor parted and there was a beauty pageant with a bunch of Italian girls in swimsuits, and then the music started up again. There was this this guy wearing a white shirt and orange pants and had a shaved head that was out of control. He would stick his hands on his hips and do this cross over thing with his legs and throw his hands up into the air. When I saw him dance, I started laughing with my head in my hands. But I avoided him by dancing with my new British girl friends.

The next morning I woke up and went to go find Sara and Steven at the train station. We went to the Accademia gallery and saw the impressive statue of David. We then walked around and went to Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge with a bunch of gold and silver shops on it and also had really good gelato nearby. Then Steven and I went to the The Mall. The mall is this outlet mall outside of florence that sells designer goods like Gucci, Prada, dolce, Armani, Ferragamo, Burberry, etc. at half price which is still quite hefty. I bought a pair of sandals at Tods and then we headed back to eat dinner.

 

On Sunday I woke up and went to the Medici Chapel and bought a ciao bella shirt with gold writing and a pink firenze shirt also with gold writing. We then went to the Pitti Palace and the Uffizi gallery which houses many nice pieces of art. My favorites were the Birth of Venus by Botticelli and medusa by Caravaggio- After that I decided to head home since I had been there for 2.5 days and headed to the train station. I bought my ticket for firenze to bologna to venezia which left in 15 minutes. But then it was time and the train wasn't there! It said it was delayed 10, then 25, then 45 minutes and then delayed I was like ahhhhh! But it was slightly okay because then I just hopped on the next eurostar train in that direction at 5:15, but I technically had no seat since it actually wasn't my train :( So I sat near the door in that part in between cars near the bathrooms for an hour. Then once I got to Bologna some guy was like nee how ma and I was like NO! Sono di Stati Uniti. and shook my head. My regional train to Venice was surprisingly really nice since those are normally crappy. It was a double decker train which I was really excited about and of course sat on the top level. Then I finally arrived home after the delay and went back to my flat to find a Holly Johnson (one of my good friends from MIT) on my couch! We talked and caught up until late and this morning we walked together to Thetis since she worked here 2 summers ago and wanted to visit all of her old friends. We caught up some more, and now she is gone and heading back to France. 

All in all it was a good weekend!

Cinque Terre

So this weekend I went to Cinque Terre national park (five lands) which is a beautiful area consisting of 5 coastal towns on the western coast of Italy.  Nisha and I took a train on Friday night, arriving in La Spezia, a nearby larger town outside the park at exactly 7am.  We dropped our stuff off at the hostel which was also outside the park and decided to walk to Riomaggiore, the first of the five towns since the busses run infrequently.  We followed the directions that the hostel manager gave us, but somewhere we took a wrong turn and ended up 1.5 hrs in the wrong direction. I really thought we were going the right way… after all we were on the right trail-But I guess the unkempt condition of the path and the constant prickling of my leg by thorns suggested otherwise.  We ended up in a town called Campligia.  An old man helped us find the right way towards Riomaggiore, after questioning if I was serious that I wanted to go there.  After buying a better map, we journeyed back in the correct direction and finally made it to the town of Riomaggiore.  I had a yummy lunch of a half pesto and half seafood pizza. 

Our original plan was to walk the trail that runs from Riomaggiore to Manarola to Corniglia to Vernazza to Monterosso which provides breataking viws of the coast and towns. 

But because of our detour we decided instead to take a train to Monterosso and chill out on the beach there.  We swam in the water which was a perfect warm temperature and laid out of beach chairs for a few hours.  We then headed back to the hostel to check-in and take a shower so we could go out later.  Unfortunately due to the location of our hostel it was not really possible to go back to the 5 towns without putting down a lot of money. So we wandered around the quiet town where our hostel was and found this restaurant packed with locals.  We ate this dish that I can't remember the name of but was surprisingly good.  It consisted of three large flat pasta-potato like things, one with a chestnutty mushroom sauce, one with pesto, and one with cheese.  It was strange but good.  With our tummies satisfied we went back to the hostel for a night of sleep.   

The next day we woke up early, determined to actually hike between the 5 towns.  We walked through each, enjoying the food of the region and each town's respective quaintness and personality.  I ate focaccia and more pesto.  The sky and sea were very blue, so much in fact that you couldn't really tell where the sky and sea ended. It just looked like a massive blue background, kind of cool!  After our hike, which wasn't too difficult we stopped in Vernazza, and played around in the water at the beach there and laid out in the sun for 5 hours.  Finally, we ate dinner at this restaurant high up on a hill overlooking the water and enjoyed seafood as well as another regional dish, Troffie, a kind of pasta made from chestnut and wheat flour with pesto. We also decided to try wine from the region since it's  really good. 

 

At the end of dinner I asked where the bathroom was, but was very unsuccessful in finding it.  To get to this restaurant, you had to walk up a set of stairs where you reached the layer with the kitchen on the left, then you walked up another short set of stairs where there were some more tables and also a path into a neighborhood, and then to get where we sat you walked up another flight of stairs to a patio.  The guy said the bathroom was down the steps and past the 2 arches.  So at first I walked down too far, and I asked someone else where the bathroom was and he said that it was upstairs, so I went back up.  It looked like there was an archway towards the neighborhood path so I walked in that direction.  I passed several arches but no bathroom, just more and more cats and old women walking around.  By this point in time I felt very lost, and just wanted to sit down and start sleeping, but I made my way back to our restaurant table somehow and then the waiter showed me where the bathroom was.  It was so much closer by than I thought, and not in the direction I went at all!

Anyways I really enjoyed the weekend because it was overflowing with one of my favorite things: quaint small townness.  Everyone was really nice in all of the towns, and there weren't that many American tourists!

Rome and The Vatican 7/14/07

On Friday, we arrived in Rome and took a walking tour that provided background to many of the sites.  We started off at the Colosseum, and then walked through the Roman Forum, Piazza Venezia, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and the Pantheon among other places.

Roman Forum

On Saturday we woke up early and went to the Vatican to avoid the massive tour groups and line of people, which is hard to do on the weekend in touristy places.  Once we finally got into the Museum we headed straight to the Sistine Chapel, weaving around the slow walking and herd like tour groups. Of course the room was strategically placed towards the end of the one-way path through the museum, but we made it and enjoyed the beautifully painted chapel.  After staring at the ceiling for quite some time, we went back to the beginning of the museum and more slowly looked at other portions of the museum which is quite large.  It is said that if you looked at everything in the museum for 60 seconds, you would spend 12 years in the museum!  After that we took a much deserved lunch break before heading on to St. Peter's Square.  Everything there was huge...the square, the basilica, the dome and blistering heat.  It was as grand as I always imagined.

Check it out, it’s a painting of Venice in the Vatican Museum!

Panoramic view of the Vatican

On Sunday, we went to Colosseum and saw the inside which was very cool.  I like ruins and imagining what life was like in the past.  I also bought this cool book where the pages are photographs of current day Roman Ruins and then you can put a plastic overlay on top on the photograph to more clearly see what it looked like back in the day - I also found this very neat. After that we walked through Palatine Hill, which overlooks the roman forum area and has ruins of its own.  After that we went to Villa Borghese which is a big park with a very nice art Museum.  Finally, until our train left we walked around the city and checked out the sales in a bunch of stores (for the cheaper prices and in search of air conditioning! it was so hot on Sunday that if I ever stepped into the shade I never wanted to leave in fear of melting).