Getting to Know You: Visiting Greece

Part of the way that the study abroad program works is that, before classes begin, all of the students enrolled spend ten days in another country together to learn more about each other and to find out about other cultures.

Our ten day program was in Greece.

Before I went on this trip, I never, in a million years, thought I would be spending time in Greece. Never. I thought the Acropolis would just be a childhood dream, that Delphi would just be a picture in my mind.

But it isn't anymore.

Our trip began with a twenty minute walk to the train station in Bologna, led by our fearless director. That was followed by a two and a half hour train ride, and a ten minute bus to the port. We then boarded a twenty-four hour ferry from Ancona, Italy, bound for Patras, Greece.

The nicely packed backpack, before I boarded the ferry

There are many unkind things that I could say about traveling via ferry - it certainly is not the most glamorous way to travel, and sleeping in an airline chair in a sleeping bag is not my idea of fun. But I appreciated spending time with my classmates learning card games and walking around deck. As the sun set, I was standing on the deck with one classmate, taking photos, and realized finally why Homer referred to the waters in his epics as the "wine-dark sea."

The wine-dark sea

After disembarking from the ferry, we took a longer bus ride to Kilini, where we boarded a second (and much nicer) ferry for the island of Zakynthos. Once we arrived on the island, we took a third bus to our accommodations - the No Name Apartments, run by Polyna and Arsen.

The rooms weren't plush and fancy - the water smelled, the wifi was in and out, and mosquitos were prevalent - but of all the places that we stayed, it felt the most like home. Our hosts made sure to show us the island that they know and love, and they did not disappoint. Our first day on the island, we were taken to a vineyard in the mountains, run by Mika and her husband the same way it has been since the 1600s. They made us breakfast (probably the most delicious breakfast I have had since being in Europe) and showed us around the cellar and winemaking process. Mika also showed us her artwork, which she has been making and selling since she studied at the University in Athens. We were then given the opportunity to purchase some wine from our hosts, which we all took advantage of. Based on the look of surprise on their faces, I don't believe they were expecting all thirty-nine of us to buy wine from them - but how else could we thank them for keeping the traditions alive?

A view of the vineyard and taverna

The original taverna from the 1600s

We walked back into town, where we visited a locally owned co-op, and then bused back down the mountain to an olive oil processing plant, where we learned how olive oil was made on Zakynthos. The company we visited participates in a movement to make olive oil in a more environmentally friendly manner, and so we learned about the differences between former practices and current ones.

Afterwards, we were taken to the highest point in Zakynthos, where we ate lunch and took pictures of the island, before we went into the main town and bought towels for a dip into the ocean at the National Marine Preserve. We had dinner at a local restaurant, where they also brought out two dancers to demonstrate (and teach) Greek dancing.

Zakynthos from its highest point

Our second day, we had a brisk walk to our breakfast through an olive grove, which we stopped for a moment to talk with Polyna and Arsen about their thoughts on the area and the changes occurring in Greece. Both are incredibly hopeful for Greece, although Arsen pointed out that all change must start within one person - and maybe that person is himself.

After breakfast at a local cafe, we visited a local pottery shop and then spent two hours on another beach. We then boarded a turtle boat and sailed off into the beautiful waters for the rest of the afternoon.

Zakythnos is the home of the endangered Caretta caretta sea turtle, and we had the chance to see two of them on the boat ride. We also had the chance to swim in a secluded alcove and on "Turtle Island," where many turtles lay their eggs. We then returned for a Greek barbecue of souvlaki and steak with our hosts.

Caretta caretta sea turtle

The cove that we swam in

As we wrapped up our time on Zakynthos, we circled up into a Socratic seminar circle, and discussed what we loved and what we hadn't liked as much. One classmate put it best when he said that he loved our hosts, but his low point was the roosters that crowed every morning outside our windows.

Early the next morning, we took the ferry back to Kilini, where we met our new guide, Iohanna, and got on a second bus to Arahova, a mountain town that is known for skiing in the winter. We stopped at a local taverna for lunch, and then, after a brief refresher at our hotel (with some of the most gorgeous views I have ever seen in my life), we prepared to hike through the ruins of Delphi.

Know Thyself

I had never expected to go to Delphi in my life. I had thought that it would always simply be an idea, or something that I saw in pictures in textbooks. So when I walked onto the site, I wasn't expecting the feeling of power that covered the area. I might not believe in the Greek pantheon, but they knew something was up when they built their temple. There is definitely something about Delphi, and the longer I stood at the site, the more I felt it.

Of all the areas of Delphi, the one that spoke the most to me was the Theatre of Dionysus. Maybe it's just because I do theatre back on my home campus, maybe it's just because there's something so reminiscent of every gym or stage I've ever seen in its structure, but I felt the need to linger there while the rest of the group hiked up to see the Stadium. I stepped onto the stage itself, standing center, and was completely lost for words. Realizing how close the audience was on this stage is terrifying - they would've been even closer than they are in the black box stage we use back home. And there would have been more, in a ring set up so high that it would almost seem suffocating. I believe my final words as I stepped off the stage was the opening of the Odyssey - "Tell me, O Muse, of the storm-toss'd man." But I might be making that up.

Center stage at the Theatre of Dionysus

After the ruins themselves, we wandered through the museum attached to Delphi. There, I remember turning a corner and gasping because I saw something that (once again) I had only seen in photographs in art history books: The Twins, Cleobis and Biton. These giant statues were perfectly framed by the doorway, and seeing them made me, quite literally, gasp and murmur, "Oh wow." My roommate, standing next to me, shook her head at me.

Cleobis and Biton, The Twins

I proceeded to act in such a dumbfounded manner for the rest of our time in the museum.

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel, and then went into Arahova for dinner, where we walked up an interminable number of steps until we reached our taverna, a local restaurant located near a church dedicated to St. George and famous for its treatments of the local goat cheese. We ate very well that evening (it was worth the steps, believe me) - fried cheese, grilled chicken, meatballs, roasted cheese, zucchini balls, pasta, lamb, French fries and more made their way onto our plates and into our mouths.

The day after we hiked up Mount Parnassus, home of the Muses, companions of Apollo. Halfway up our hike, we met with some shepherds, who fed us a small meal of homemade feta, bread, olives, tomatoes, and cucumbers, along with a yogurt/cheese spread, and showed us how they live with their herd of goats. We continued onward, down the mountain, and spent twenty minutes of the hike down the mountain in silence, contemplating the beauty of the nature around us. At one point, we rounded the bend of the path (which wove back and forth along the mountain), and, although my legs were shaking from walking on uneven ground, and I was ready to collapse, I could not believe the view.

The way up Mount Parnassus

With the shepherds

From the top

After hiking the mountain (and making it safely to the bus), we were rewarded with a lamb roast, hosted by the family of our guide. It was much more than just lamb - they practically prepared us a feast. Tomatoes and cucumbers, feta, spanakopita, dolmades made with stuffed cabbage leaves, and probably the best yogurt I've ever tasted graced the table that day. Filled to the brim, we returned to the hotel, and had the evening to do what we wished. I spent the evening catching up with family back home, taking advantage of the wifi that didn't go in and out and the warm shower and soft bed.

The next morning, we left for Athens. Along the way, we stopped at the small town of Distomo. There, we visited the memorial museum, built to commemorate the people of the village during World War II, who were systematically murdered by the Nazis in 1944. Having worked at The National World War II Museum in New Orleans this summer, I was shocked to hear about this brutal murder of Greek men and women - this was not something I had seen covered in the Museum's archival material when I entered data for them. And so I went into the exhibit completely mind-blown. I left with tears in my eyes and physically shaken. Two images from the exhibit stick in my mind: one, an image of the Nazi soldiers, taken just after the massacre, in which they are all smiling for the camera; the other, an image of a seventeen-year-old girl taken by a TIME magazine writer documenting the event a few years later, prematurely aged by what she has witnessed. How can humanity be so cruel, it makes me ask? How could people do such a thing? Were there any Germans that regretted what they did? And if they truly did, would any of the Greeks truly forgive them?

After Distomo, we visited the monastery of Hosios Lukas. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site, the monastery is absolutely gorgeous. It is home to the first octagonal dome in Western architecture, and holds many priceless mosaics and icons. What I loved about it the most, besides its aesthetic beauty, was the peace the site held. After Distomo, which still feels sad after so much time, a place with such peace was a welcome relief.

Hosios Lukas

Mosaic within the church

From Hosios Lukas, we traveled to Athens, stopping at our hotel and then walking through the historic city to the new Parthenon Museum. The Museum was built in 2004, to coincide with the Olympic Games, and to help expand the original museum, which was inadequately small. The site of the museum is atop a Hellenistic city that is currently being excavated, and visitors can see through the floors of the museum down to where archaeologists are working to preserve new elements of the past.

The Parthenon Museum is filled with items from the Parthenon, but underneath many of them is a simmering sense that the Greeks were robbed by past visitors. Especially painful for the Greeks is the story of the Elgin Marbles, which currently reside in the British Museum in London. Iohanna refers to them as the Parthenon Marbles, and reminded us that they were stolen from Greece. She told us that she is on the committee to have them returned to the Parthenon Museum. Having visited the British Museum (and seen the Elgin Marbles on display there - they were one of the two items I chose to go visit in my short time there), I feel that both museums do justice to the items that they preserve. However, attempting to repatriate ancient marbles seems to bring up the same angry feelings as museums requesting the return of mummies and sarcophagi, for example. I don't think that the issue will ever be fully settled. For the moment, I am content to know that I have now viewed the full set of marbles and that I am a very lucky person to have been able to do so.

We left the Parthenon Museum to walk to our dinner, and passed by the government square. When we arrived, it was filled with a Communist Party rally, holding a peaceful protest for the upcoming presidential election. After a quick discussion, we walked quickly through the crowd and continued on to dinner - another feast, but this time with a view of the Parthenon. During dinner, I had the chance to discuss what we had seen with our director. He took rather a positive view of the protests, but (and I think this is because of my background with French Rev and Russian Rev) I took a more wary approach. I told him that the colors and symbols brought up a lot of negative connotations, and were worrisome because of what they could turn into - and what past experience told me they could become. Not all of those past experiences were positive outcomes. Some were, but not all. I think he was surprised to hear me say that, but he nodded, and we wound up having a conversation about the French Revolution.

The Acropolis, from our restaurant

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, and I chatted with some friends on Skype and prepared for the next day - the Acropolis.

Unfortunately, I woke up sick the next morning. I had a bad runny nose, a sore throat, and - at one point - a fever. I did manage, however, to make it to our morning meeting with a worker from an NGO and a government official about the immigration and refugee crisis in Greece. Afterwards, however, at lunch, I wanted to curl up on the table and die. One of the other members of the group also felt under the weather, and so we both returned to the hotel while the rest of the group mounted the Acropolis - my dream since childhood. I spent the rest of the day in bed, coughing, sneezing, and keeping my fever down.

The next day, we packed up and left Athens, but not before we stopped at the National Archaeological Museum, which houses the gold dug by Heinrich Schliemann from Mycenae. Schliemann also famously excavated Troy, decorating his wife with gold necklaces he believed belonged to Helen of Troy. We also viewed some famous pieces of statuary, including a bronze statue, the Artemision Bronze, of a man poised to throw either a lightning bolt or a trident - making it either Poseidon or Zeus.

The Artemision Bronze

After leaving the museum, we journeyed on to Mycenae itself, climbing the citadel to view just how perfectly positioned it was in the ancient world.

Mycenae Burial Sites - Schliemann's Dig Site

We left Mycenae, passing over the Isthmus canal designed by Nero, and entering the town of Nafplio, where we spent our last night in Greece. We climbed up to the top of Nafplio's old town walls, looking out at the city below us. Then, along with some classmates, I walked back into town and got some gelato (the best in Greece, made by Italians - of course) and purchased a set of worry beads, for which the city is known. After returning to the hotel, we went to dinner as a group, walking to our final large feast of cheeses, salads, moussaka, and meats together in Greece. The next morning, as others took the late morning to shop and swim in the rocky waters, I took the chance to get some much needed rest (since I was still sick). Not long after, we packed up and boarded our bus for Patras, to board our ferry for Ancona - and Italy.

Nafplio

Our ferry ride back home was not nearly as smooth and easy going as our first. Due to a mistake by the travel agent, we had all been booked for deck seats - meaning we would have to sleep outside - instead of airline seats. The crew of the ship were incredibly unkind to us for the entirety of the trip, scolding us for sitting in areas without buying anything (simply because it was air-conditioned) and telling us not to sleep on the floors or anywhere we had not been ticketed for.

In other words, if we were not outside, we were not to be seen on ship.

By the time we landed in Ancona, the entire group had written horrible review cards for the ship and crew, and were incredibly grateful to be close to Bologna again.

After an uneventful train ride, and a quick walk back, we all returned to Camplus. All that's left for me to do now is catch up on my laundry (which will take a while, sadly).

Mainly, what I got from this trip was a new closeness to my classmates. Not only did I get a chance to put names with faces, I received the opportunity to chat with everyone and learn who they were. I got to really know people who both go to school with me and those who don't. In fact, I spent more time with students who go to other schools than I did with my own classmates from back home. Each night, there was engaging conversation, laughter, and smiles.

But I'm not sure that I've summed up Greece properly. Because, you see, you really can't summarize what I saw with words. Or with images.

There is a quote from Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History that best summarizes the emotions I have coming back from Greece: "...it had the quality of a memory; there it was, before my eyes, and yet too beautiful to believe."

αποχαιρετισμός, Greece. ευχαριστώ.

Farewell, Greece. Thank you.

Sunset in Nafplio