Well you can't put a price on consistency, even when it's rooted in inconsistency. I believe I said that I was going to be doing my blogs on Fridays and yet not one blog has been posted on a Friday... Well here's the dealio. Fridays are our "Let's pack as much as possible in to 24 hours and see how it goes" days. If we're honest, all of our days are like that. EXCEPT for Sunday, which is devoted to homework and now blogging. "Chris, I'm confused what are you trying to say?" BLOGS ARE NOW GOING TO BE POSTED ON SUNDAYS. "Why couldn't you just say that?" I don't know... I'm sorry.
Last week I informed you that I was sick. Well I'm still sick so that's a thing. It's barely worth mentioning because it has little effect on my daily routine, but it's there. Kind of like a shadow, or another analogy that's cooler than that one.
Another jam packed week of excitement. Last Monday we traveled to Corinth and Mycenae. Our tour at Corinth started with our guide telling us an old Greek myth about a King who had left his wife and married another woman. The ex-wife put an accelerant on the bride's dress. During her wedding her dress caught fire and she ran and jumped in a spring fed fountain, which saved her life. Crazy right? Well then the tour guide turns around and points to one of the many old buildings near us. "That's the fountain right there." One after another, our jaws fell to the ground. This is a good example of how it keeps reoccurring to me that we are HERE. All of the myths, all of the stories and historical events happened where we are actually standing! Our tour continued to what was the main town square in Corinth where Paul came to preach to the Corinthians. A few members of our group lingered behind and read multiple portions of first and second Corinthians aloud to each other. This was a very surreal experience (On the same note, the rock that I talked about going to the first night was actually Mars hill, where Paul preached to the athenians. We didn't even know it!).
We traveled to Mycenae next. We saw the honeycomb tombs that the kings (possibly Agamemnon) were buried. Next we walked up to the Acropolis (just means fortress on a hill) of Mycenae. It was naturally well protected and had an incredible view. You could see for miles, toward Corinth and the coast as well as inland. The museum there wasn't much to look at though because most of the interesting artifacts were just duplicates.
Last Friday we went to an island for the day!!! We took a 2 hour ferry to the island of Agistri. Oh man. It was incredible. Agistri is not one of the main touristy islands but it is a popular destination for Greeks to travel to for a day or two. Only 1200 people live there permanently so the island is crazy quiet. The water is crystal clear so Josh and I bought of pair of the cheapest goggles we could find (Mine are pink...) and we swam around looking at fish for most of the day. My sinuses still hurt so I could only dive down 3ft or so. Most of the group ended up meeting up at some rocks by accident and we jumped off of them up until our ferry was ready to depart. Nothing but good things to say about Agistri except the excess of sea urchins...
This week I met a professor from Izmir. We have talked twice, both times for more than two hours. I've learned so much from him. I won't even try to spell his name because I'll just make a fool out of myself. But we've discussed so many things and have helped each other better understand Turkey and the U.S. Currently he's doing research in Athens about the dispute between Greece and Turkey surrounding the island of Cyprus. I knew very little about this conflict prior to our conversations, but listened and quickly learned. I ended up finding out that he actually was born in Cyprus. I asked him lots of questions about keeping a neutral stance on the issue since he and his family were so intimately involved. I think I will cherish these conversations the most out of any that I've had in Greece.
Since we live above a sports bar, I have been watching a lot of soccer, rugby and Australian football. I still don't like cricket or rugby really, but Australian football is awesome. I'm a big fan.
Yesterday we had our first free day of the trip. Some people tried to travel to other islands but it was crazy expensive and they could only be there for a day. So Josh, CJ and I took some people down to the beach (two days straight at the beach and I didn't even get sunburned Mom). After the beach we went to a super-yacht marina that was built for the 2004 olympics. We ended up eating a TGI Friday's hahaha. We actually spent over 3 hours there. It was so nice to not need to run off to some other activity. After our lengthy meal, we went to see the movie "Blue Jasmine" in an outdoor theater in the marina. For our film class we had to go out and see a movie in the city so it worked out well.
That about brings us to the present. I will be leaving for Budapest early Wednesday morning. I am beyond excited for Budapest and have heard great things from travelers that I've met.
Not being, but becoming
Chris Costenbader
No comments:
Post a Comment