Greece! (Corfu and Athens)

After some ferry complications on my way to Greece, I spent two days on the island of Corfu, one day in Athens, and then another day back on Corfu. The hostel is famous for it's booze cruise, but most of the attendees were about 20 and the activities sounded a bit immature and/or vulgar. So, instead I did a kayak tour for five hours on one day. It included a cliff jump. The cliff seemed rather daunting from the top, but once we were in the water and looking back up at it, we realized it was only 30 feet or so. We also stopped to do some snorkeling, which was extremely unexciting. There were a few small, grey fish, but I quickly decided I would rather relax on the beach than waste my time looking at some rocks and seaweed.



I did a quad tour the next day. I don't do a lot of four-wheeling at home, so I had a lot of fun and found that I became comfortable with the steering quite quickly. We went up to the highest point on the island to have lunch and take pictures and played "wasp baseball", which is esentially trying to swat as many wasps with your sandal as possible.

Speaking of sandals... I only brought two pairs of footwear on the trip: one pair of running shoes and one pair of athletic flip flops. They suggested we do the quad tour in flip flops because we were going to stop at the beach. Well, mine wouldn't start with the button on the handle, so I had to kick start it. I definitely broke a flip flop in the process. I was lucky it happened before we left the parking lot because I was able to just run and put on shoes really quick. Another girls' broke halfway through! Anyway, the point of sharing this was to point out that I discovered that it is quite hard to find women's sandals in MY SIZE in Greece. I eventually found a pair that will work as a temporary solution.

I found them in ATHENS, which was my next destination. I had repeatedly heard two things about Athens: 1) it's dirty and 2) you can see everything in one day. Both were accurate. I took an overnight bus from my hostel and arrived in Athens around 7am and then left at 10pm on the return bus back to hostel. I didn't feel like planning or stressing, so I did a five-hour walking tour.

I have always wanted to go to Greece because I had seen pictures of and heard about my parents' trips. I didn't think it was going to be possible this summer, but I am glad it worked out. The Parthenon was obviously impressive, but I actually liked the structure across the acropolis better. It is unique in that it has a set of columns in the shape of women, rather than the traditional styles. It's where Poseidon and Athena competed for the gods to win the right to name and rule the city. Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and made a salt water fountain spring up. At the time, the gods did not understand the importance of water and were more impressed by the olive tree that Athena was able to sprout because it represented future agricultural success. We also saw the 1896 Olympic sight (where the first modern-day Olympics were held), which is now rarely used. In 2004 it was only used for smaller events like archery.

I was surprised to find out that dolmas (aka grape leaves) are a winter product and was unable to have any. However, I did enjoy spanikopita, baklava, and gyros. I also learned that Americans say tzatziki wrong. I have always prnounced it ta-zee-kee, but they pronounce it more similar to how it is spelled. Also, the baklava I had not-surpisingly put the baklava I made for a sixth grade project to shame. Spanikopita was my favorite thing I had though (i.e. spinach pie in a thin pastry dough).

Connecting back up with dad and Jeff could be tricky. We are meeting in about 24 hours and have not really concluded on a time or place. Plus, between the two of us, there's a pretty good chance that either Jeff or I will get delayed. Hopefully it will work out!