Me encanta Grecia!

28 April 2009

So last weekend was my big trip to Greece with Jackie! It was a pretty long day of traveling on Friday to get to Athens, but Jackie was waiting for me when I got there (with a sign with my name on it haha) and we headed to the bus station to catch the bus to Monemvasia. The plan was that we would head to Monemvasia (a small town in the southern part of Greece, where my cousin’s wife Georgia has family) and stay there from Friday to Monday, then head back to Athens Monday night and see the sights there for a day before flying out Tuesday afternoon. Well, we were unaware that the bus from the airport takes about an hour, and because of this we missed the last bus to Monemvasia by about 4 minutes. It was very stressful and we weren’t sure what to do. We decided to head to the hostel we had booked for Monday night and try to switch the reservation. This was a little difficult because we didn’t know exactly where the hostel was and didn’t have a map or a phone number. The phrase “It’s all Greek to me” finally made a lot of sense when we were trying to read signs haha. Luckily everyone we asked for directions was very nice and we eventually got to our hostel. We were able to get a room no problem, so we dropped off our stuff and walked around. We did some shopping, got some ice cream, and then walked up to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. They were closed for the night, but they looked very beautiful all lit up and it was really cool to just walk around. The area around our hostel was very cute, lots of people out in cafes and restaurants, very full of life.

The next morning, Saturday, we got up early and headed over to the bus station to make sure we wouldn’t miss it this time! We got on the bus at 10 am for a 5 and a half hour bus ride through Greece. It was very long and stopped at pretty much every little town along the route, but luckily the countryside and the coastline were gorgeous and entertained us for most of the trip. Sometimes it seemed a lot like Spain, with the olive groves, orange trees, etc, but other times it was very different, like all of the mountains along the coast. And it was definitely a big change for Jackie from the flat Netherlands! We finally arrived in Monemvasia, about an hour after I had told Georgia’s cousin Lary to meet us (oops) and he took us to Georgia’s grandmother’s (yia-yia) house. Lary spoke English very well but yia-yia not so much. It was interesting trying to communicate because Jackie and I literally did not know a word of Greek when we arrived (I now know maybe 6 or 7 haha). I also don’t think she completely understood the gluten-free thing, even with the explanation I printed out in Greek, but I did not have a problem eating – the first afternoon, a delicious and HUGE meal of chicken and potatoes and salad was waiting for us – the two of us probably ate enough food for a family of 4 or 5 but it was amazing. That evening we just walked around the little town and sat down by the water – it is the cutest little town (only about 700 people live there in the winter!) and out in the water, connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land, is this huge rock island that has lots of ruins on it, as well as a very small, old town. That night a few of yia-yia’s friends (or cousins?) came over after dinner, which was fun. They are all very sweet old ladies, and one of them actually spoke a decent amount of English, which was a nice change and we were able to talk a little more – I felt bad not saying a lot during lunch with yia-yia but there’s only so much you can say with such a big language barrier – hand gestures only work part of the time, haha. She did show us a lot of pictures though, I enjoyed that a lot.

Sunday morning we got up and went to a Greek mass with yia-yia. Jackie and I were very confused and just tried to follow along by standing up/sitting down and crossing ourselves (3 times) whenever the people around us did. It was a beautiful service though, pretty much all singing, and we found out later that it’s all in Ancient Greek so a lot of the townspeople don’t even understand it! Later, we called Lary to take us on a hike up to the castle and ruins on top of the island (this will make more sense once you see the pictures, if I can ever get them uploaded!). He took us on his motorcycle over to the gate of the town and then we walked through the lower town and up along the path to the upper old town, with a beautiful old church and lots of ruins. Finally we made it to the very top and were greeted by the most incredible view of the town below, and of the mountains and sea in the distance. It was unreal being up so high and having such an amazing view of everything surrounding us – it might be one of my favorite views from this semester. We took a lot of pictures and relaxed up there for awhile, before heading back down to the town. Then Lary showed us the one access point from the town down into the sea, called the portello. There’s even a ladder to go swimming, which we planned to do the following day. Then we went back to yia-yia’s for lunch, which was my favorite Greek food – LAMB! It was so delicious, accompanied by some really yummy rice. Once again we were stuffed but it was so good. Later we walked along the coast, trying to find a good place to swim. There aren’t really any sandy beaches (apparently to Greeks, anywhere you can swim is a beach!) but we found this spot along the rocks to jump in and swim around. The water was cold and very salty, but it was exciting to swim in the Mediterranean! We hung out on the rocks for awhile, took some more gorgeous pictures (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the rock and of the town!). Later that night, we did a little shopping in the town and got some ice cream, once again just sitting down by the water and enjoying being in Greece.

Monday we awoke to not so nice weather, but we still went out walking around. We decided to venture up to the lower old town, even though it was much too cold and the sea was way too rough to swim. But we had a good time exploring the old ruins in the town and doing a little more shopping/browsing in the cute little shops. Then we got some tea in a cute café overlooking the sea and of course, took a bunch more pictures. That night we walked around “downtown” again and headed in for an early, last night in Greece because we had to get up very early in the morning.

Tuesday morning we got up and said goodbye to yia-yia, and headed down to catch the bus at 5:15 am. Both Jackie and I were very sick for about the first hour of the 6 hour bus ride, but we made it to Athens and headed to the airport. Jackie’s plane left at 3 but my departure wasn’t until 5, so it was a very long wait for me seeing we got to the airport around noon. My plane ended up being delayed so I had to wait even longer, but I finally left for Madrid and got a decent amount of sleep on the plane (I love window seats and sleep masks). We even got fed on the plane (yay for not cheap airlines!) and unlike on the way to Athens, I could actually eat this meal, even though it didn’t taste very good. Finally arrived in Madrid and had to wait another hour for my flight to Sevilla, where I arrived around 11. I had to wait for my bag that I had checked, and then wait 30 min for the bus before I finally got back into Sevilla. I then waited for the bus back home for about 25 minutes, along with a bunch of women dressed up in beautiful flamenco dresses for feria, until we realized that bus wasn’t running. So finally I got on a different bus and made it home around 1 am – about 20 hours of traveling! It was a very long day but very worth it for a trip to Greece – overall I had a ton of fun and loved Monemvasia. It is such a beautiful place, the people are so nice, and it was very relaxing. A big thank you to Georgia for helping me stay with her family, it definitely made the trip a lot more special and much more authentically Greek.

Pictures will be coming soon, along with another update later this week about Feria! (the big April Fair here in Sevilla)

Athens and Monemvasia

more Monemvasia