The Last Five Weeks

So, where we left off in the adventure, I was on the Isle of Lesvos with all of my comrades puttering around the island, swimming in the sea, working at some archeological sites, and taking our Greek culture class with Prof Sophia. Since then, quite a bit has happened.

Our time on Lesvos ended with an 8am ferry ride to Ayvalik, the town in Turkey directly across the water from Lesvos. We spent the next four days with the whole group traveling around western Turkey on the world's smallest tour bus. The first two nights, we were in Assos, a tiny town with all of one taverna and maybe two hotels on the coast, where there is a sweet archeological site up on top of the hill where we climbed all over the ruins of an ancient temple and fortifications. We made our way up to Troy, where we all took lots of photos of the group in their giant 'replica' of the Trojan horse. Then down south to Pergamon, where it was raining buckets, so we spent more time hiding under trees and in catacombs than looking at the actual site. The second two nights we stayed in the town of Selchuk nearby the site of Ephesus, where we discovered the joys of hooka bars and Ephes, the ONLY beer in Turkey. The next day we went to Ephesus, which has the ruins of a Roman era library, some Roman villas with sweet mosaics and a really nice ancient theater that was gigantic.

The next morning our week of free travel began. The world's smallest tour bus dropped us off at the airport in Izmir where I traveled with Maddie and Chris to Istanbul where we met up with my friend Melanie who is studying in France. Our hostel was in the area called Sultanamet, which was mostly hostels, hotels and restaurants nearby the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. From the rooftop we had an amazing view of the spires of both of them over the city.

We spent our time in Istanbul relaxing and doing touristy things. Visited the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia (where I took a lot of photos, but realized that it is impossible to capture the monumental scale of the building), the Basilica Cistern (a Roman cistern used to store water for times of siege, which was underground and looks a bit like the great hall of Moria from Lord of the Rings) where we had some of their amazing apple tea by candle light, the Grand Bazaar and slightly more difficult to find Spice Bazaar, which were both incredibly overwhelming, Topkapi Palace where the sultan and his harem lived back in the time of the Ottoman Empire, and Chris and I also managed to make it to the Archeological Museum there, which had some nifty things, most interesting of all being what they claim to be the world's oldest love poem carved into a slab of rock.

We spent our evenings in our room talking, in the hostel's bar meeting travelers from around the world, or exploring the nightlife of the city. We found this amazing place on the other side of the river from our hostel that was a full block of outdoor hooka bars. Just red and orange bean bag chairs and small tables as far as the eye could see, and no one tourists in sight. We sat and relaxed and smoked some hooka, and waiters came around with trays of tasty apple tea and fruits and desserts.

Basically, I loved everything about Istanbul, and certainly intend to go back at some point. It's made my list of places to live in the future.

After our 6 nights in Istanbul, the four of us took a ferry to another town farther south and then a long bus ride back to Ayvalik where we met up with the rest of our group and took the ferry back to Lesvos. We spent two nights on Lesvos in Hotel Votsala, which was lovely, because we got a chance to show Mel around the place where we had been living for the last month. Then we hopped a plane to Heraklion on Crete.

This airplane just happens to be the smallest passenger airplane I've ever been on in my life. I love flying, so I had a great trip, but Mel and Maddie who aren't too great with flying to begin with, didn't have so much fun.

When we arrived in Crete, we managed to find a hostel to stay in for the two nights we were there, which was alright except for the midnight curfew and the lack of electricity in our room. While we were there, we visited the archeological site of Knossos, which is really well known, and the Crete aquarium. Then we puttered around town for a day, said goodbye to Melanie and headed back to Athens.

Here in Athens, it's back to the grindstone academically. We are taking our last class, Attic Tragedy with Prof Anthony Stevens and have three term papers and our capstone project to finish, along with the performance of a play for our Tragedy class. It's a lot to handle, but we all know that we can do it. I've already managed to finish one essay for my Archeology class and need to have the one for my History class done by Thursday.

Both of the last two weekends we've gone out of town as a group. The first weekend, a one night trip to Meteora in central Greece and this past weekend a two night trip to the Peloponnese where we saw Epidaurus, Mycene, Tiryns, Naufplia, and Olympia.

Meteora is a town at the foot of these amazing rock promontories that jut straight up into the air. A long time ago, hermits started living in the crevices of the cliffs and eventually there got to be so many that they established first one monastary, and then others, up on the tops of the cliffs. They're amazing because the buildings seem to just grow out of the rocks almost organically. Until the last century, the only way to get into most of the monastaries was by being pulled up in a net. Next to Istanbul, I think it's my favorite place that I've been on this trip.

This past weekend was also amazing, although tainted a bit by the fact that it was pouring down rain the entire time. The first day we visited Epidaurus, a sanctuary to the god of healing Asklepius, and a very pretty and peaceful place. The theater of Epidaurus is supposedly the most acoustically perfect theater ever. It is massive, but if you drop a coin in the center of the orchestra, it can be heard even in the highest seats. We stayed the first night in Naufplia, a lovely little town with a sweet castle on the hill above it. It was the original capital of Greece after it broke away from the Ottomans. The next morning we visited the castle on the hill, which is huge and in pristine condition because it never fell, rather it was betrayed, supposedly by the French architect who designed it. Up there on the hill we watched the storm move in that would mark the rest of our trip.

That day we visited the sites of Tiryns and Mycene, both from the Mycenaean civilization of the Bronze Age. They have walls made of stone so big that in the Classical Era they called them Cyclopian, because they thought that the giant cyclopses must have built them. In Mycene we all went to look at the underground cistern, which is down a long dark stairway that is pitch black without lights. I felt a bit like Lara Croft or Indiana Jones exploring the unknown. Except of course that archeologists and tourists have known about this for years. Mycene is the home of mythical characters such as Agamemnon, general of the Greek troops that fought at Troy, and is called by Homer "Mycene, rich in Gold".

Then, soaking wet from the rain, we took the bus onwards to Olympia, another little Greek town, where most of the group spent the night inside hiding from the rain, watching MTV (an American television station) for the first time in months. The next morning, we walked to the site of ancient Olympia, where the original Olympic games were held. There is quite a bit of the site left, including the ruins of the massive temple to Zeus, the temple to Hera and the original Olympic stadium where Professor Wardle had the girls and guys run races for the prize of a free lunch (I remained comfortably a spectator). The museum at Olympia had some interesting bronze work found at the site and the famous statue by Praxilities of Hermes and the baby Dionysus.

Once again drenched to the bone, we all boarded back on the bus and returned to Athens, and back to the grindstone again.

This week is a lot of essay writing, a lot of class, a midterm on Wednesday and Thanksgiving on Thursday. Thursday evening we're also going to a play with our Theater class, which should be fun. Then Friday, Chris and I are flying to Santorini for the weekend, where I promise to take lots of photos of the blue and white houses and intend to relax a bit with two of my essays and one midterm done.

To all of you back home, I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving spent with loved ones. I will miss you all, and as my friend Alison reminded me, I'll also be missing our traditional attempt to view the Christmas tree lighting in Pioneer Square.

Much love to you all,
- C