The reason I haven't blogged in such a long time is because for my fall break I went on a ten day study trip to Greece, and since then I have been recuperating from the epic days of climbing thousands of steps, exploring ruins, eating sumptuous meals of Greek cuisine, and participating in wonderful traditions of staying up late into the night dancing.
The trip started in Athens, and one of the highlights of the my whole trip was seeing one of my best friends from high school who is studying in Athens. I met up with my friend Ellen and we got gyros and hung out. It was so nice to see a familiar face and be able to catch up with a friend. The next day I got to climb the Acropolis hill to see the parthenon. It was incredible to visit such an important ancient site. That evening we had our first group dinner. It was soooooo good! We had amazing salad, appetizers, plentiful wine, and gryos. There was live Greek music, and the professors on our trip danced for all of us.
The next day we drove through the mountains of Greece, and I was blown away by the beauty of the landscape. When we got to our destination of Delphi I headed out with a bunch of students to go exploring. We found a path that led us to climb up and down some pretty trecherous rocks bringing us to the edge of some cliffs giving a gorgeious view of the mountains, valley of olive trees, and sea port in the distance. In the evening I bundeled up in all my layers and headed into town. It smelt like fall at home to me - the fresh chilly air filled with the smell of burning leaves, baked apples, and pie spices. In order to get to the tavern where we were going to have dinner we had to climb several hundred steps to to the top of a hill. The tavern was small and cozy and I had one of the best dinners of my life. We had warm baked bread, fresh goat cheese, greek salad, pasta like I've never tasted before, flavorful chicken, amazing lamb, wine, and a local honey spirit (which helped get the dancing started). There was a DJ that had been playing music during dinner, and when dinner started to wind down he turned up the music and everyone started dancing. When the DJ played Lady Gaga's Poker Face people got up on the tables and the evening progressed from a gourmet diner to an exclusive dance club. It was so much fun having a giant dance party with the whole restaurant just for us!
The next couple of days we visited more ancient ruins that often times made me feel like I was in Lord of the Rings going through the Misty Mountains. One of the best days of the trip was a day we spent in the village our wonderful guide Ioanna was from. Their are only three hundred people that live in the small beautfiul village, so being part of the group of almost sixty American students made us quite the spectacle. We had a delicous lunch made from all local products including the cheese, pork, salad, potatoes, and wine. Ioanna gave a speech about how wonderful it was to be able to bring us all to her village, and the cook came out of the kitchen and started to cry. It was such a touching moment to see this woman sharing her community with us, and her pride and the pride of everyone in the village was beautiful to witness. Later we sat in the village square drinking Greek coffee, and I sat in amazment at the simplistic beauty around me. Even the air was beautiful - cool and clean, with the smells of wood fires and home cooking. We got to go to a local basement wine cellar and drink wine straight from the barrel. The wine was fantatsic, and we got to eat it will locally produced honey, bread, and yummy dried figs. It seemed unreal at the time to be sitting in a small wine cellar in a small village in Greece tasting delicious food and wine. It got even better when we went back into the square and some locals made us fresh loukoumades (a doughtnut like pastery) covered in honey, cinnamon, and walnuts. I am so grateful for being able to have had such a beautiful and unique experience in Greece.
The next day we went to Corinth where Paul the Apostle preached. Now when I hear readings from Paul's letters to the Corinthians I can actually imagine what it looks like from first hand expereince! It was another great moment in my travels to sacred spaces to be able to walk where Paul the Apostle walked, and see where he would have defended himself. From Corinth we got on a Ferry to go to the island of Mykonos. I went out on the deck to watch the sunset with a bunch of students, and after the beautiful sunset we indulged in some very American moments dancing on the deck. Of course we had to sing "I'm on a boat", and we also learned a dance from one of the professors on our trip after doing the macarena, cha cha slide, and two step. When we got into Mykonos it was already late so I called it a night early to be ready for the next day. Already the trip had been amazing, and in ways a life chaning experience, and I'm only now started to process how incrdible it was.
On our last full day in Greece I went to Paradise Beach. Yes, it was really named that and it lived up to its name. I had never seen such clear water. As I sat listening to the waves and the breeze through the palm tree umbrellas with the warm sun shining on me I definitely felt like I was sitting on a little piece of paradise. I spent the day swimming in the sea and sitting reading in the sun. It was a beautiful, peaceful, relaxing day. I'm glad I spent the day chilling at the beach because our last groups dinner turned into another awesome dance party in the restaurant that spilled out into the streets of Mykonos.
