I have to leave absurdly early tomorrow morning to get to the airport so I can fly to Madrid but I decided I really should post here before I go to bed. I meant to post once more before I left for my week-long trip to the Peloponnese but never had time and now sadly I'm a little fuzzy on some of what's happened since my last post. Anyway, here goes:
Mt Olympus.
The high (and low) point of last week was definitely my trip to Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Nadia told us it was something you did once and then never had to do again. Definitely a fair assessment. Our guide met us outside the Kallimarmaro Stadium and promptly gave us a once-over and somewhat derisive smirk. As he checked all of our shoes (including my "hiking" shoes that I bought specifically for this trip and nicely matched my new raincoat and scarf) he said one thing to us: "I told you, you're going to die this weekend."
Thanks for that vote of confidence, Christos. He wasn't too far off though. After an eight hour bus ride (which gave some of the group time to recover a bit from the night before -I personally had been celebrating the fact that I [think] I fixed my near identity theft incident), we made a quick stop for gyros before beginning our climb at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. A quick note to anyone who ever intends on hiking Mount Olympus: start a LOT earlier than 4 in the afternoon if you want to make it to the refuge before dark.
Before it got miserable, however, it was actually quite beautiful:
This is the first time I've seen the leaves change color since I've been here. It feels like I'm totally missing fall. No fall foliage and no Pumpkin Spice Lattes (#sororitygirlproblems).
Anyway, now that my inner JAP has reared its trendy head.... Right, me climbing a mountain. I don't really do the outdoors. I used to, and I obviously still love nature, but the past 20 years of living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia have made me somewhat unaccustomed to some of the things that other people on the hike are used to, such as hills, rocks, mud and horse shit. In New York, you pick up after your pets and there certainly aren't massive piles of poop covering the so-called "trail."
Also, speaking of Philadelphia (and massive piles of poop):
We found a tree stump that looked like the Philly Phanatic.
We weren't even halfway to the refuge when it started getting dark. First, we ended up in the midst of the fog (or clouds)? Also, I have never done well with altitudes so i started feeling a little woozy which normally I could deal with but when you're climbing up a rocky mountain with a terrifying drop behind you? Not so fun. Furthermore, the only time I have ever hiked before this? My first year at Alford Lake where I hiked Mt. Battie because I thought I'd be able to find my grandparents' house from the summit and run away.
Mount Olympus in the mist. At this point, it was tiring but still really, really cool. Things went from cool to miserable, however, once it started to rain. Climbing a mountain in the rain and in the dark when it is covered in slippery rocks and poop is terrible. We climbed for hours. I slipped and fell (thankfully only in mud, not donkey poop). As it got colder and colder and higher and higher, I thought I was going to cry. Apparently, another girl did. Christos (who, I forgot to mention before was un peux sexist and made a boy always be the last of the group) kept making us take breaks and then telling us lies about when we would reach the top. He also kept yelling at us to take out our flashlights, which none of us had. I almost threw a rock at him when he made us stop a final time to tell us that the refuge was just over the next rise but wouldn't just continue walking. I was not a happy camper.
When we finally made it to the refuge, I was able to view the damage the hike had done to me. My brand new hiking shoes? COVERED in... hopefully only mud. My jeggings? completely soaked through and with a muddy streak down the entire right side where I fell. My dignity and pride? Gone the moment the group of Greek men who were clearly actual mountain climbers and had full fleece ensembles and those hiking sticks burst into laughter at the sight of me and began to film me while I tried to dry my pants in the fire (with me still in them). One eventually took pity on me and told me I needed to change into something else and just put the jeans next to the fire. Thanks, buddy. I really hadn't thought of that. I had brought a pair of leggings to change into but gave them to my friend Ashley when I saw that she only had shorts to wear. I borrowed a pair of (very damp) gym shorts from my friend Alex which only caused the Greek mountain climbers to laugh more.
There was no heat in the refuge except for two fireplaces, but at least there was warm food. I've never had better (or more overpriced) spaghetti or hot chocolate. We had two rooms to sleep in, one full of bunks where the boys were supposed to be and one with two giant beds that Christos told us was for the girls (he had his own bed in an adjoining room). I immediately ran to go stay in the room which the boys (the whole situation sketched me out a bit and if I was going to be stranded on top of a mountain in a total horror movie situation, I was going to surround myself with boys I knew) but ended up having to sleep in the girls room just the same. In the end, it was probably for the best because it was so much warmer.
The next day, we woke up to a nice surprise: SNOW!!
a CYA snowman:
A not-so-nice surprise: the bathroom situation. Ew.
In the morning, we hiked up to the summit. The second day went MUCH better than the first. The snow made everything a lot more enjoyable and we had a ton of snowball fights along the way.
The summit:
Me freezing my ass off at the summit:
Dave pouring libations to the gods:
Alex and Rosie pouring libations to the gods:
More views of the summit:
(above: Penn goes to Mount Olympus!)
The way back down (we went up this part in the dark in the rain):
Alex and some more CYA-ers:
more views of the mountain (some of these are out of order but i'm too lazy to fix that)
At the summit:
back to green:
On the ride home (that's Christos sitting on a boy from CYA's lap):
All in all, the trip was incredible but definitely something I only need to do once.
We had one day of classes that passed by rather uneventfully except for a protest by the police, firemen and coast guard outside of the academic center. Basically it was just a gathering of exceptionally pretty Greek people. Then, early Tuesday morning, we left for the Peloponnese. Study travel is absolutely one of my favorite aspects of CYA. I was on the bus with the Ancient Greek Athletics class so there was only about half the people and we went on a different route than the other buses (or at least visited sites in a different order).
Tuesday: We went straight to Delphi, which ended up being a wise decision as there was a general strike for the next two days that included archeological sites which meant we wouldn't have been able to see Delphi if we hadn't gone that day. We had the afternoon and night free to wander around the town and I found the jewelry store I bought souvenirs in when I was there when I was 17. Sadly, I bought the best stuff they had then.
PICTURES OF DELPHI:
(They used to throw blasphemers off those cliffs on the left)
(Ancient swimming pool!)
(my friend Sam and I at Delphi)
(The Charioteer)
(where we ate lunch)
Wednesday: We were supposed to go to Olympia to see the site and museum but because of the strike our plans were slightly altered. We looked at the site from outside the fence and learned about the origins of the Olympic games. We then went on a walk by a river that was apparently important back in the day.
Thursday: Instead of going to the archaeological site at Olympia, we left and drove straight to SPARTA. This was the part of the trip I was most excited for. Sparta had a fascinating culture and history. Obviously the story of the battle of Thermopylae has something to due with my love for Sparta (as does a certain movie starring Gerard Butler). There had been an oracle that said that either a Spartan king would die (this had never happened before during a battle) or Sparta would fall, or something along those lines. The 300 Spartan soldiers led by one of their TWO kings (Sparta was a diarchy), Leonidas, along with a few thousand allies were supposed to hold the pass of Thermopylae and delay the Persians until the Athenians could get their act together. They would have been able to, except a Greek traitor named Ephialtes betrayed them and showed the Persians a path to get behind the ranks. Leonidas, knowing that they would now be defeated, sent the allies home. He and his 300 stayed and fought til the end. When someone commented that the Persians were so numerous that their arrows would block out the sun (Herodotus said that the army was so large that they drank rivers dry which is clearly hyperbole, but still), one Spartan soldier remarked something along the lines of "so, we'll fight in the shade." (Yes, that is a line from 300 but the graphic novel is actually based on Herodotus' Histories which contains that line as well). Basically they were total badasses and incredibly heroic. In November, I'll get to go and actually see the site of Thermopylae, I can't wait. There's supposedly a marker that says something like: Go tell the Spartans, here we lie awaiting their command. And of course, when we were at the acropolis of the ancient city, our professor let us all give one shout of "THIS IS SPARTA!!"
(sitting on the acropolis in SPARTA)
(King Leonidas!!)
(300 Street)
Friday: On Friday we went to Mystras which is a sort of Byzantine fortification and town. It was beautiful and I'll put pictures of all of this trip up eventually, I just really want to finish writing this so I can go to bed. After Mystras, we went to Tyrins, which was an ancient port. That night we stayed in Nauplion which is a beautiful little town right on the sea. That night was fun because in our search for a fun bar, we somehow ended up in a gay bar that had fantastic sangria. The highlight of that night was perhaps when we were debating whether or not the bar was in fact a gay bar and one of the boys informed us that he had had his butt slapped while in the mens' room. That sort of decided the matter.
(Sparta in the mist)
(a new friend)
(Saint George)
(CYCLOPEAN WALLS)
Nafplion!
Saturday: We went to Nemea which is the site I had to do a report on when I was in Greece for UChicago. It's particularly famous for its red wine (known as the blood of Herakles), the Nemean lion (one of Herakles' 12 labors), and the Nemean games (one of the four panhellenic games). After that, we went to Mycenae and got to climb down the secret stairs. I used my flashlight app on my iPhone quite successfully and managed not to fall once, despite mud from the recent rainfall. And of course, here was when my camera battery finally died on me. That night, I had a wonderful date night with my friend Shawna and stayed up late watching terrible movies in the hotel lobby with the rest of the group.
Another new friend
Nigel showing the Athletics class how to properly start a race
EPIC.
BABY
Oh hai. just chilling on a pillar.
Temple of Zeus at Nemea
Oh hai.
PUPPIES AT MYCENAE
LION GATE
Views from the castle in Nauplion:
Sunday: Our last day! We left the hotel for Epidaurus to see the ancient hospital and temple to Asclepius and the theater.
The hospital:
the theater:
Afterwards, we went to Isthmia to learn about the last of the four athletic games (Isthmian, Nemean, Olympic and Pythian [at Delphi]). Then after lunch at the bus station in Corinth, ironically where we ate after bungee jumping in the Corinth canal, we headed back to Athens.
IMPORTANT STUFF THAT APPARENTLY HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE GONE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/world/europe/greek-workers-start-two-day-anti-austerity-strike.html?scp=5&sq=athens&st=cse (picture number 4 is particularly epic).
Anyway, TOMORROW I FLY TO MADRID WOOHOOOOOOO. Sorry if this is completely garbled but I just wanted to write everything down before I forget it all. And I will try and add pictures from the Peloponnese later.
Mt Olympus.
The high (and low) point of last week was definitely my trip to Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Nadia told us it was something you did once and then never had to do again. Definitely a fair assessment. Our guide met us outside the Kallimarmaro Stadium and promptly gave us a once-over and somewhat derisive smirk. As he checked all of our shoes (including my "hiking" shoes that I bought specifically for this trip and nicely matched my new raincoat and scarf) he said one thing to us: "I told you, you're going to die this weekend."
Thanks for that vote of confidence, Christos. He wasn't too far off though. After an eight hour bus ride (which gave some of the group time to recover a bit from the night before -I personally had been celebrating the fact that I [think] I fixed my near identity theft incident), we made a quick stop for gyros before beginning our climb at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. A quick note to anyone who ever intends on hiking Mount Olympus: start a LOT earlier than 4 in the afternoon if you want to make it to the refuge before dark.
Before it got miserable, however, it was actually quite beautiful:
Anyway, now that my inner JAP has reared its trendy head.... Right, me climbing a mountain. I don't really do the outdoors. I used to, and I obviously still love nature, but the past 20 years of living in Brooklyn and Philadelphia have made me somewhat unaccustomed to some of the things that other people on the hike are used to, such as hills, rocks, mud and horse shit. In New York, you pick up after your pets and there certainly aren't massive piles of poop covering the so-called "trail."
Also, speaking of Philadelphia (and massive piles of poop):
We weren't even halfway to the refuge when it started getting dark. First, we ended up in the midst of the fog (or clouds)? Also, I have never done well with altitudes so i started feeling a little woozy which normally I could deal with but when you're climbing up a rocky mountain with a terrifying drop behind you? Not so fun. Furthermore, the only time I have ever hiked before this? My first year at Alford Lake where I hiked Mt. Battie because I thought I'd be able to find my grandparents' house from the summit and run away.
When we finally made it to the refuge, I was able to view the damage the hike had done to me. My brand new hiking shoes? COVERED in... hopefully only mud. My jeggings? completely soaked through and with a muddy streak down the entire right side where I fell. My dignity and pride? Gone the moment the group of Greek men who were clearly actual mountain climbers and had full fleece ensembles and those hiking sticks burst into laughter at the sight of me and began to film me while I tried to dry my pants in the fire (with me still in them). One eventually took pity on me and told me I needed to change into something else and just put the jeans next to the fire. Thanks, buddy. I really hadn't thought of that. I had brought a pair of leggings to change into but gave them to my friend Ashley when I saw that she only had shorts to wear. I borrowed a pair of (very damp) gym shorts from my friend Alex which only caused the Greek mountain climbers to laugh more.
There was no heat in the refuge except for two fireplaces, but at least there was warm food. I've never had better (or more overpriced) spaghetti or hot chocolate. We had two rooms to sleep in, one full of bunks where the boys were supposed to be and one with two giant beds that Christos told us was for the girls (he had his own bed in an adjoining room). I immediately ran to go stay in the room which the boys (the whole situation sketched me out a bit and if I was going to be stranded on top of a mountain in a total horror movie situation, I was going to surround myself with boys I knew) but ended up having to sleep in the girls room just the same. In the end, it was probably for the best because it was so much warmer.
The next day, we woke up to a nice surprise: SNOW!!
In the morning, we hiked up to the summit. The second day went MUCH better than the first. The snow made everything a lot more enjoyable and we had a ton of snowball fights along the way.
The summit:
All in all, the trip was incredible but definitely something I only need to do once.
We had one day of classes that passed by rather uneventfully except for a protest by the police, firemen and coast guard outside of the academic center. Basically it was just a gathering of exceptionally pretty Greek people. Then, early Tuesday morning, we left for the Peloponnese. Study travel is absolutely one of my favorite aspects of CYA. I was on the bus with the Ancient Greek Athletics class so there was only about half the people and we went on a different route than the other buses (or at least visited sites in a different order).
Tuesday: We went straight to Delphi, which ended up being a wise decision as there was a general strike for the next two days that included archeological sites which meant we wouldn't have been able to see Delphi if we hadn't gone that day. We had the afternoon and night free to wander around the town and I found the jewelry store I bought souvenirs in when I was there when I was 17. Sadly, I bought the best stuff they had then.
PICTURES OF DELPHI:
Wednesday: We were supposed to go to Olympia to see the site and museum but because of the strike our plans were slightly altered. We looked at the site from outside the fence and learned about the origins of the Olympic games. We then went on a walk by a river that was apparently important back in the day.
Thursday: Instead of going to the archaeological site at Olympia, we left and drove straight to SPARTA. This was the part of the trip I was most excited for. Sparta had a fascinating culture and history. Obviously the story of the battle of Thermopylae has something to due with my love for Sparta (as does a certain movie starring Gerard Butler). There had been an oracle that said that either a Spartan king would die (this had never happened before during a battle) or Sparta would fall, or something along those lines. The 300 Spartan soldiers led by one of their TWO kings (Sparta was a diarchy), Leonidas, along with a few thousand allies were supposed to hold the pass of Thermopylae and delay the Persians until the Athenians could get their act together. They would have been able to, except a Greek traitor named Ephialtes betrayed them and showed the Persians a path to get behind the ranks. Leonidas, knowing that they would now be defeated, sent the allies home. He and his 300 stayed and fought til the end. When someone commented that the Persians were so numerous that their arrows would block out the sun (Herodotus said that the army was so large that they drank rivers dry which is clearly hyperbole, but still), one Spartan soldier remarked something along the lines of "so, we'll fight in the shade." (Yes, that is a line from 300 but the graphic novel is actually based on Herodotus' Histories which contains that line as well). Basically they were total badasses and incredibly heroic. In November, I'll get to go and actually see the site of Thermopylae, I can't wait. There's supposedly a marker that says something like: Go tell the Spartans, here we lie awaiting their command. And of course, when we were at the acropolis of the ancient city, our professor let us all give one shout of "THIS IS SPARTA!!"
Friday: On Friday we went to Mystras which is a sort of Byzantine fortification and town. It was beautiful and I'll put pictures of all of this trip up eventually, I just really want to finish writing this so I can go to bed. After Mystras, we went to Tyrins, which was an ancient port. That night we stayed in Nauplion which is a beautiful little town right on the sea. That night was fun because in our search for a fun bar, we somehow ended up in a gay bar that had fantastic sangria. The highlight of that night was perhaps when we were debating whether or not the bar was in fact a gay bar and one of the boys informed us that he had had his butt slapped while in the mens' room. That sort of decided the matter.
Saturday: We went to Nemea which is the site I had to do a report on when I was in Greece for UChicago. It's particularly famous for its red wine (known as the blood of Herakles), the Nemean lion (one of Herakles' 12 labors), and the Nemean games (one of the four panhellenic games). After that, we went to Mycenae and got to climb down the secret stairs. I used my flashlight app on my iPhone quite successfully and managed not to fall once, despite mud from the recent rainfall. And of course, here was when my camera battery finally died on me. That night, I had a wonderful date night with my friend Shawna and stayed up late watching terrible movies in the hotel lobby with the rest of the group.
Views from the castle in Nauplion:
Sunday: Our last day! We left the hotel for Epidaurus to see the ancient hospital and temple to Asclepius and the theater.
The hospital:
IMPORTANT STUFF THAT APPARENTLY HAPPENED WHILE WE WERE GONE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/world/europe/greek-workers-start-two-day-anti-austerity-strike.html?scp=5&sq=athens&st=cse (picture number 4 is particularly epic).
Anyway, TOMORROW I FLY TO MADRID WOOHOOOOOOO. Sorry if this is completely garbled but I just wanted to write everything down before I forget it all. And I will try and add pictures from the Peloponnese later.
