“Americans who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that, despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages.”
--Dave Barry
Leaving Athens is so hard. Athens is now home, and it is sad to spend my first night outside of the city (with the exception of Santorini) in 4 weeks. However, Napflion is also a beautiful break. I could see the stars and make out constellations tonight. I could walk around without worrying as much about watching my purse-although I did still watch it. And I don’t have to worry about the riots and demonstrations. Even sitting here writing this, I hear some sort of noise and gathering of people. My first thought is more along the lines of, “Wow, Syntagma seems really crazy tonight,” and then a reminder that Syntagma is not actually here and I can’t hear Syntagma from just anywhere.
The past three days have been crazy without Athens. I have come back and been so exhausted that I could barely manage to change into my pjs before collapsing into bed. We have spent a significant portion of our last few days on busses, but even with the time on busses to sleep, traveling is exhausting. Some of the most exciting parts of our last few days in and around the Napflion area: going to the Greek theatre at the ancient theatre of Asklepios in Epidaurus, exploring Franchthi Cave, walking down 909 steps at the fortress in Napflion, and enjoying a mountainside dinner outside Sparta.
The Greek theatre was a strange experience. I am not entirely sure what I had been expecting, but I thought that I would be able to follow the storyline a little better than I actually could. Within the first couple minutes, I was so lost. While this theatre is beautiful and the acoustics and architectural feat is absolutely amazing, the play had very little meaning to me. I had intended to learn a little more about the play before we left, but we didn’t have time to really figure out what the play was about. By halfway through the play, I was noticing the stars more than the actors. Even so, just waiting for the play to start was a cultural experience. As important or famous people arrived, some members of the audience would start to applaud. I was reminded of my time at the Globe, where I was miserable, but the experience was still remarkable. I feel like I will look back fondly at this in a similar way.
Before we left for the theatre, another girl and I went exploring a little in Napflion. We got turned around a little while trying to find the Catholic church we had seen the previous day. We finally found this church, which used to be a mosque. It was tiny; it looked like a maximum of about fifty could fit into this room. There was also a crypt outside, which was so cool and a little creepy. A motion-activated light turned on about halfway down the stairs, and it was such a unique addition to the church.
Earlier that day, we explored a cave that our teacher had helped excavate in the late 60s and early 70s. Seeing how much he knew and truly understood about the site was really neat. It also gave me a better perspective on a potential career path. Based on what I am considering pursuing (physical anthropology), I could spend a lot of my time at archaeological digs. I started to question if I would be comfortable facing some of the conditions that my professor described. I think that I probably could, but I know that it would be different in reality as opposed to theory. This particular cave is so old; it has history dating to around 40,000 BC, and that is just the evidence that can be accessed due to the water level. The walk to Frank (the cave) was breathtaking. It was surrounded by water and nature and beauty.
Today, we walked down a few steps from a fortress in Napflion. I had been told before that there were either 999 or 1000 steps down from the fortress. You must have needed to count the steps from the very top of the fortress, because when I got to the bottom, I had only descended 909 steps (with a few steps. And, yes, I did count the entire way down.) You could see almost all of Napflion from the top of the fortress. You could even see some of the rocks at the bottom of the beach, although not from the very top of the fortress.
We ended today with a dinner as a class at a cute restaurant right outside Sparta. We ate at the foot of a couple mountains. The mountains literally just start suddenly from what appears to be fairly flat ground. Either way, the food was delicious and so much less expensive than in Athens! It was so nice to be able to go out and enjoy ourselves. However, we were ordering without a menu, so the money aspect was a little questionable. We were afraid that we were all going to be broke after the meal, but I think that we were all relieved and surprised when our bill came.
Looking back over the pictures that I am currently uploading to facebook, I realize that I have a good solid section based completely around the Evzones. Because of all of the riots and demonstrations before we left Athens, I think that the last time that I actually saw the Evzones was last Monday. That means that by the time I return to Athens, I won’t have seen the Evzones for a week and a half. I honestly can say that I recognize some of the guards and some of their superiors by now, which is somewhat embarrassing but shows the extent of my obsessions. However, I miss them terribly and am so excited for our reunion.
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