La Jolla, CA? No, Glyfada, Greece :)

Well, on day six of our adventures in Greece, our group was moved to Glyfada, a suburb of Athens.  For those who know San Diego, Athens would be San Diego and Glyfada would be La Jolla.  Basically, it is a small quiet community with high-end stores and, of course, the beach!  Although the tour company recommended for all of us to always stay in a group, they told us, on the side of course, that this community was completely safe.  And I agreed!
We stayed in Palmyra Hotel, and it seemed like we were the only guests, but a few hours later we realized that there was also another college group in our hotel.  It was nice to see other students of our same age, except they seemed to stay in the hotel all day writing papers and presentations that were due for the course they were taking in Greece.

During our stay in Glyfada, we visited Sounion.

Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.

View from the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion.

            It was nice to get out of the pollution and traffic congestion, and to simply walk around at night.  Often times, my friend and roommate for almost the entire trip, we would have lunch or dinner together in order to soak up the Greek people and culture.  It was nice to be able to speak with the Greek people in restaurants and cafes.  We were even able to take pictures with the local police and we tried, for the only time on the entire trip, which I am extremely proud of, FAST FOOD!  Catherine and I went to Goody’s, which is the McDonalds of Greece, and the burgers were average.  When we first entered Goody’s we noticed that they called their burgers, Western Burgers and when I saw that I thought of Western Barbeque Burgers, but I think when they refer to Western, they just mean like the United States.  Also, the meat tasted like soy.

            All in all I had some great memories of Glyfada.  I went shopping in Zara and H&M, which I loved!  Hey, I know they have those in the United States, but it was fantastic to be amongst other foreign people and gauge their reactions to shopping! :)

Aegina: The Land of Pistachios and Beautiful Cats

Beach on the island of Aegina. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

            Finally, the day had arrived at last!  A beach day! :) Don’t get me wrong, I love looking at the culture and layers of history, but I needed to get out of the city and experience the crystal clear blue waters of Greece.  On the fourth day in Athens, we embarked upon our journey to the island of Aegina.  I remembered we had to dress appropriately in order to be able to enter a Greek Orthodox Church (i.e. wear a skirt or a dress past your knees), have to withstand the heat of the day and wear beach appropriate clothes all at the same time!  We also were going to make a stop at the Temple of Aphaia.

            We met in the lobby for a morning departure at 8:30 a.m., I believe if I remember correctly, that this was very difficult because many of us had gone out the night before!  Our group had a little trouble meeting on time every morning, I believe this was due to the fact that we wanted to experience everything as possible at night so we would tend to sleep very late, even with our early morning departures.  Also, what would always happen to me is that I would be prepared and ready to go in the lobby, but at the last second, I would forget something in my room and I would arrive after the departure time.

            Anyways, we drove to the port of Piraeus, which some of you may recognize the name from the famous song The Children of Piraeus sung by Melina Mercouri in the movie, Never on Sunday.  Well, we boarded a rather large ferry, Hellenic Seaways, on what would be an hour ferry ride to the island of Aegina.  This ferry ride was not as pacific as I thought it was going to be; I ended up losing my coin purse.  What ended up happening was, I wanted to be like every other Greek person and order a Frape, which is basically a cold drink made with instant coffee, and I stood in line at the small café on the boat to order it.  I ordered it, in broken Greek, and noticed that it lacked sugar.  I must have put down the coin purse to put in a few packets of sugar, and left it on the counter.  The coin purse held sentimental value to me because I had just bought it, from ricksteves.com of course, and it had all of my coins and euro bills that I had saved from my trip to Europe in 2005.  Oh, how easy objects become lost… :( 

On the ferry to Aegina!  With Alexis and Liz! :)

           This missing object was much more important because I had not realized it was lost until we had reached the Temple of Aphaia and we needed to show our student ID’s and use our money.  I also realized that my ID’s and credit cards were missing from my backpack, so needless to say that the rest of the day I was preoccupied by the fact that I had no money to buy food or souvenirs.  Luckily, my friend Catherine helped me out with the food and souvenirs part!  Thank you again!  The story does not end on a sad note because I discovered that I had left my other wallet that had my ID’s and credit cards in my hotel room in Athens.

The Temple of Aphaia. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

View from the Temple of Aphaia. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo

            Once we left the Temple of Aphaia, which had a spectacular view of course, we headed to a Greek Orthodox Church.  In a nutshell, after almost crashing into a few cars on the narrow winding roads in Aegina, we made it to this magnificent Greek Orthodox Church.  The paintings and mosaics were, needless to say, incredible!  The building must have been undergoing renovations since it was covered in scaffoldings, but every now and then people would enter to pray.  It seemed a little awkward that there was a “tour group” of young people in this Church while people were praying, but I am sure they must get visitors all the time since the location is breathtaking!

Greek Orthodox Church on Aegina. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

Inside the Greek Orthodox Church.

The floor of the Greek Orthodox Church! Look at the octopus and fish!

            Our bus driver, Yannis, whom I adored, dropped us off in the center of town amongst several tavernas and cafes, so that we could eat lunch and go to the beach!  Why must I have to wait any further to jump into beautiful Greek water?  I didn’t really need to eat lunch?  Why?  When the water was just a few feet away from the restaurants!  I guess I had to suffice for a few hours more… I knew I would get to swim in the crystal warm water soon enough, but I had to hurry because we only had a few hours left on the island! 

            Well, a few of us joined Joe in our hunt for some nourishments, and a few others split off and went with Karey or by themselves.  We ate right next to the fish market, but for some reason nothing was appetizing to me and it probably offended the owner of the restaurant, which I terribly regret… He was so nice, but I was not hungry, I just wanted to be on the beach, soaking some sun and feeling the warm ocean water on my skin.  There was the most beautiful cat under our table, and I had to give her some of my food.  She had a pretty bad cut on her neck, but she had the most gorgeous innocent eyes.  We quickly changed in the bathroom, Catherine and I, and started walking towards the beach where we met up with the rest of our group.  I finally laid down my towel on the sand, which was not rocky and I learned soon enough that that was a miracle, and I slowly made my way for the water.  I could not wait any longer, and I jumped right in… The sight was simply beautiful.  I was so happy not only being by the beach, but also in the water.

Beach on Aegina! :)

The fish market closing for lunchtime.

The hungry cat with the most beautiful eyes in the restaurant where we had lunch!

            After the beach, we walked around the small city and saw our guide, Roula, taking a nap in one of the cafes.  Hey!  Everyone gets tired eventually!  We bought bagfuls of pistachios and I bought a couple of postcards to remember Aegina!

            We finally boarded the ferry and I wrote in my journal to remember the experience.

            All in all, I loved Aegina, but the beach was not as big as I was expecting!  Do not get me wrong, I loved being able to swim freely in the ocean, but the beach was right below the main road and a couple dozen feet in length.  Plus, Roula said it was the biggest and nicest beach on the island.  At least it was in a very convenient location!  The views from on top of the Temple of Aphaia were incredibly breathtaking.  The contrast of the mountains and the oceans were extraordinary.  I almost felt like I was at home in San Diego with the diverse terrain.  The people of Aegina were very hospitable and it is said to be a great vacation spot for the Athenians because the island is only a ferry ride and an hour away.  Although the experience was somewhat marred by the lost coin purse and identification, I held my head high and tried to remain positive! :)

Athens: My First Greek Experience

My view from the restaurant area in the Astor Hotel, Athens. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

Athens, the first stop on my journey abroad.  I really did not know exactly what to expect when I first landed in the airport.  Of course, I had always heard from a few friends and my boyfriend that Athens was pretty dirty when they went, but the beaches were to die for.  So once I got to Athens, my agenda was to get to the beach as soon as possible… but how?  I had to spend almost a week in this city with no costal contact?!?!?! Impossible! I knew that going to the beaches of Greece was not on the highest priority of our professors, but I wanted to go nonetheless.  But as our bus driver drove us around the city of Athens from the airport, my mentality completely changed.  I saw Athens for what it was, an enormous city, an ever-expanding city and a city trying to hassle with both problems. 

In the beginning, our group was going to be in Athens for nine days, but a miraculous luck fell over our group, we were going to be in Athens for only six days and in a suburb of Athens, Glyfada, for the three additional days.  I could not believe my luck, I was going to be ever-closer to the beach! But I will talk about Glyfada in a little bit.  Our professors believed that we were moved because of the protests going on in Athens in Syntagma Square, which was extremely close to our hotel.

First dinner in Athens.  The Acropolis in the background!

First meal in Athens.  Cheese pie, spinach pie, fried pepper, fried eggplant, dolmadaki and eggplant dip. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

Main course: Chicken souvlaki. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

The hotel in Athens, Hotel Astor, was perfectly situated in Athens.  It was near the Parliament building, Syntagma Square, the Plaka, and the Acropolis!  Oh the view of the Acropolis from the hotel was simply magnificent.  I would eat my early morning breakfasts with the view of the Acropolis as my backdrop, it was incredible how something I had seen on TV and in visitor guides was close to me at last! :)

The view from Hotel Astor in Athens. Parliament Building in the background. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

The view from Hotel Astor in Athens. The city in the background. Photo taken by Diana Crofts-Pelayo.

The rooms and service at the hotel were, on the other hand, not as perfect as the view.  The hotel staff seemed to be upset and almost irritated by so many college students in their hotel, but my opinion on it was that they should be happy that we were checking into their hotel in the first place.  Also, the rooms were supposed to be “non-smoking,” which meant that on paper they were “non-smoking,” but in reality they were smoking only! ;)  I have planned to post another blog about hotels and rooms a little later.
As a group and individually, I did many things in Athens, and all thanks to our guide Roula Skoula and my two professors Joe Smith and Karey Sabol.  Honestly, Joe would push all of us to see all of the sights in Athens, and to take advantage of the time we had in Athens.

On top of Lykavittos Hill, Athens.

Athens was a dirty city, but it had its charm.  Honestly, seeing ancient ruins next to modern buildings was certainly a shock, but it was a beautiful contrast.  Seeing a city, and its layers of history and culture was very intriguing.  Athens was a great city to start off in when arriving in Greece because it showed to me a little bit of what each region in the country has to offer.