Thursday, January 12, 2012

Trip to Greece - part 2

Hisashiburi (it's been a while)!  I hope the new year has been kind to you so far!  Anyway, I'm finally back from my vacation (technically I got back from Greece last week but I didn't have school until Monday).  I was considering not saying anything else about my trip at all (since this is supposed to be a blog about Japan) but then my brother pointed out that I called the previous post "Trip to Greece - part 1"... so having a part two makes sense.

On December 23rd Anne, Erin, and I took several long train rides and airplane flights and finally arrived on the small island of Paros on the Aegean Sea the next day.  We got to our hotel/villa after a 20 minute taxi ride (€25, what a ripoff!) and found several whitewashed buildings with blue doors and shutters (essentially it was very Greek looking).  One of the owners greeted us as we brought in our suitcases and told us to come inside out of the cold.  It was about 50° F (10 Celsius) outside so my friends and I were actually enjoying the temperature, the lack of snow, and the sight of green plants!

On Paros we spent our days doing some walking tours provided by the hotel, watching movies, relaxing, and eating good food.  During Christmas especially we ate a delicious meal and got to sample many different dishes.  Another day we helped prepare the food for dinner (we made moussaka among other things and I finally decided that eggplants aren't that bad).  We visited Parikia, the capital of the island, one of the days and saw an old castle (which mostly seemed like just a stone, whitewashed wall), a church called the Panagia Ekatontapiliani which was built in the third century, and went to a few stores to get souvenirs.  Most of the tourist-type attractions were closed for the winter but that was fine by me since it led to more relaxation-time in the end.

Anne and Erin made a habit of photographing the food we ate so that they could show their teachers back in Japan what authentic Greek food looks like.  Erin took the picture above of the moussaka, potato salad, and Greek salad.  It was DELICIOUS.

We hung out on Paros until December 31st when we took a propeller plane (one of the 36-seater kind that seem too small to ever make the trip in one piece) back to Athens.  We were only in Athens until the morning of January 4th but we made the most of our time there.  Of course it was New Year's Eve when we arrived so we weren't really sure what to expect: Would people be rowdy?  Would there be riots?  and more importantly, Would the Acropolis be open?  As it turned out, people weren't too rowdy even though it was December 31st, there weren't any riots like there were over the summer, and the Acropolis was open except for New Year's Day.  So, our first afternoon there we dropped our luggage off at the hostel and headed for the Acropolis Museum which was a two minute walk away (did I mention the hostel was in an AWESOME location?).  I have to admit, the museum was cool.  It was built over a few archeological digs and had glass floors in several locations so one could look down and see the various archeological tools and foundations of buildings that had once stood there.  I was also happy to find that I recognized several of the mythological figures that were prominent in the carvings, painted vases, and statues (all thanks to reading Percy Jackson; I highly recommend Rick Riordan's books!).  During the midnight countdown Anne, Erin, and I were actually out eating dinner at a restaurant; people in Greece often eat their meals after 10 PM but that worked to our advantage with the jet-lag and all.

On January 1st many of the main attractions were closed for the day but that didn't stop us from walking around the area to find the sites located in public areas and parks.

We climbed a hill near the Acropolis (the Hill of the Muses) and got an amazing view of the city.

 Of course, we also got a clear view of the Parthenon (which was being restored as you can see from the cranes).

 I don't want this post to be too long so I think I'll wrap it up here for now.  Stay tuned for "Trip to Greece - part 3" where I'll talk about the Acropolis, our epic journey back to Japan, and apple juice.

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