This is a video of Vasillis (our anarchist bus driver - not sure on the spelling) dancing at the welcome party the mayor threw for us last week at his hotel in Skala...
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Pictures of Athens!
Check 'em out! Be sure to click "show info" on the top right corner of the screen to see the names of pictures and any comments that I included to fill in the details!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42624753@N02/sets/72157622398631228/show/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42624753@N02/sets/72157622398631228/show/
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Πορος!
Poros! That's the name of the town where we'll be living from the start of the last week until the end of November!
It's a tiny town on the island of Kefalonia -- one of the Ionian Islands located south-west of mainland Greece. The people here are sooooo friendly!
We get discounts at several of the restaurants and at least one of the three small supermarkets gives us small discounts or free goodies almost every time any of us make purchases simply because they're all almost as excited that we're here as we are to be here!!
We arrived on Friday evening (Sept. 11) and had dinner at Pantelis -- this has become THE hang-out because the food is fabulous, Pantelis (the guy who owns it and who I've come to believe NEVER leaves) and the rest of the 'help' (his mom...) are super friendly, and... they have wireless Internet and oodles of plug-in places all over! Plus, because we all spend so much time here, they don't mind if you sneak some free Internet once in a while when you're not hungry (or don't have the money) to buy something.
Oh. And the ice cream is also the best in town. I had some chocolate-banana tonight while Interneting before bed.
ANYWAY.
So we ate here for dinner on Friday night and for breakfast on Monday morning. After that, Hetti, who is very involved in the planning and organizing on the Greece end of the getting our program running and whose husband was the mayor here until he retired just a year or two ago, gave us a quick tour. Quick because the town is small; it only takes about 20 minutes to walk through all of it.
Then most of grabbed some groceries and headed straight for the beach!
We spent most of the rest of the weekend on the beach...
Then on Monday and Tuesday from 10am - 1pm (ish), Geoffrey (our prof and guide and translator, etc.) gave us some background and instruction in preparation for the dig which officially started yesterday!
I feel like other things happened over the course of the weekend... But really, I think we did just spend most of our time on the beach! Or sending e-mails and skyping home to tell everyone about how beautiful it is here!
On Monday NIGHT we experience just a little more of the kindness of this tiny town when the mayor threw a party in OUR HONOUR at his hotel in Skala (the next town over). This party included a buffet dinner and an open bar -- for 19 university students! Crazy! We were also allowed to make use of his incredible pool but sadly, none of us brought swimsuits (except Amanda, who didn't go swimming because obviously no one else was up for joining her...)
The night also inluded some live music and lots of dancing! It was both hilarious and FUN! Thalia (Pantelis' wife who works for the municipality) and Yuria (who is one of the other 'real' archaeologists working with us on site) taught us some Greek dance moves -- I'll post some pictures and maybe even some videos as soon as I can!
In any case, I learned something about Greece... They don't measure alcohol here. It's all free poured. Generously. I was definitely feeling it a little by the time we headed home. I was feeling a little more back to myself once we got back to our hotel and decided to join a few of the others for some night-time swimming in the sea and it was SO perfect! I can't get over how WARM the water is here! Soooo good.
Wednesday... was our first day on site!
I felt nausiated by the time we got to the site but it wasn't because of motion sickness (though it definitely could have been!) but rather because of my fear of heights (and edges of cliffs) and how close we CONSTANTLY were to DRIVING OFF OF ONE. Gah. Not a fan of these narrow winding roads with no barriers. Especially in big buses. With large windows. *shudder*
Once we recovered from our bus ride to the site we worked hard to clean it up! Lots of moving rocks and sweeping... it was so incredible to see the difference between what it looked like when we arrived and what it looked like when we finished! I'm so excited to begin excavating!!
We were supposed to begin our excavations today buuut... it rained. We were able to measure the absolute elevations for the site and then it started pouring. The rain won't always mean that we have to pack it all in but a more real concern is lightning (we're working on the top of a rocky mountain, completely exposed and with a bunch of metal tools...) and there was a lot of thundering and lightning going on leading up to the downpour. SO. First day of excavation... we didn't actually do any excavating. *sad face*
We did, however, decide to split up the "field trip" that we had planned for Friday. On Friday we were to go to Argostoli (capitol city of Kefalonia) and check out the museum as well as the giant supermarket (cheaper than Poros and with more selection). It was also the place where we could pick up other odds and ends that we'd all forgotten at home. Poros, being the tiny town that it is, doesn't tend to carry things like headsets. Headsets (with microphones) are pretty much a must-have here for those of us using skype to keep in touch with family and friends (and boyfriends) back home.
After Argostoli, the plan was to visit Assos and Fiskardo -- Assos to see the town because it's beautiful and also to visit the HUGE castle on a hill that was built as a defense against pirates and foreigners back when they used to frequent (and raid) the island on a regular basis. Apparently the most frequent course of action was to kidnap a bunch of people, keep 'em on a boat off shore, and demand ransom money from those remaining on the island in exchange for the return of the hostages. Fiskardo because it was the ONLY town on the island that escaped destruction in the 1950's when Kefalonia was hit by a really big earthquake (rated 8 point something on the richter scale).
ANYWAY.
We decided that since Friday would otherwise be a LONG day, we would do Argostoli on Thursday (since we'd been rained and lightning-ed out of digging) and Assos/Fiskardo on their own on Friday.
To be continued...
It's a tiny town on the island of Kefalonia -- one of the Ionian Islands located south-west of mainland Greece. The people here are sooooo friendly!
We get discounts at several of the restaurants and at least one of the three small supermarkets gives us small discounts or free goodies almost every time any of us make purchases simply because they're all almost as excited that we're here as we are to be here!!
We arrived on Friday evening (Sept. 11) and had dinner at Pantelis -- this has become THE hang-out because the food is fabulous, Pantelis (the guy who owns it and who I've come to believe NEVER leaves) and the rest of the 'help' (his mom...) are super friendly, and... they have wireless Internet and oodles of plug-in places all over! Plus, because we all spend so much time here, they don't mind if you sneak some free Internet once in a while when you're not hungry (or don't have the money) to buy something.
Oh. And the ice cream is also the best in town. I had some chocolate-banana tonight while Interneting before bed.
ANYWAY.
So we ate here for dinner on Friday night and for breakfast on Monday morning. After that, Hetti, who is very involved in the planning and organizing on the Greece end of the getting our program running and whose husband was the mayor here until he retired just a year or two ago, gave us a quick tour. Quick because the town is small; it only takes about 20 minutes to walk through all of it.
Then most of grabbed some groceries and headed straight for the beach!
We spent most of the rest of the weekend on the beach...
Then on Monday and Tuesday from 10am - 1pm (ish), Geoffrey (our prof and guide and translator, etc.) gave us some background and instruction in preparation for the dig which officially started yesterday!
I feel like other things happened over the course of the weekend... But really, I think we did just spend most of our time on the beach! Or sending e-mails and skyping home to tell everyone about how beautiful it is here!
On Monday NIGHT we experience just a little more of the kindness of this tiny town when the mayor threw a party in OUR HONOUR at his hotel in Skala (the next town over). This party included a buffet dinner and an open bar -- for 19 university students! Crazy! We were also allowed to make use of his incredible pool but sadly, none of us brought swimsuits (except Amanda, who didn't go swimming because obviously no one else was up for joining her...)
The night also inluded some live music and lots of dancing! It was both hilarious and FUN! Thalia (Pantelis' wife who works for the municipality) and Yuria (who is one of the other 'real' archaeologists working with us on site) taught us some Greek dance moves -- I'll post some pictures and maybe even some videos as soon as I can!
In any case, I learned something about Greece... They don't measure alcohol here. It's all free poured. Generously. I was definitely feeling it a little by the time we headed home. I was feeling a little more back to myself once we got back to our hotel and decided to join a few of the others for some night-time swimming in the sea and it was SO perfect! I can't get over how WARM the water is here! Soooo good.
Wednesday... was our first day on site!
I felt nausiated by the time we got to the site but it wasn't because of motion sickness (though it definitely could have been!) but rather because of my fear of heights (and edges of cliffs) and how close we CONSTANTLY were to DRIVING OFF OF ONE. Gah. Not a fan of these narrow winding roads with no barriers. Especially in big buses. With large windows. *shudder*
Once we recovered from our bus ride to the site we worked hard to clean it up! Lots of moving rocks and sweeping... it was so incredible to see the difference between what it looked like when we arrived and what it looked like when we finished! I'm so excited to begin excavating!!
We were supposed to begin our excavations today buuut... it rained. We were able to measure the absolute elevations for the site and then it started pouring. The rain won't always mean that we have to pack it all in but a more real concern is lightning (we're working on the top of a rocky mountain, completely exposed and with a bunch of metal tools...) and there was a lot of thundering and lightning going on leading up to the downpour. SO. First day of excavation... we didn't actually do any excavating. *sad face*
We did, however, decide to split up the "field trip" that we had planned for Friday. On Friday we were to go to Argostoli (capitol city of Kefalonia) and check out the museum as well as the giant supermarket (cheaper than Poros and with more selection). It was also the place where we could pick up other odds and ends that we'd all forgotten at home. Poros, being the tiny town that it is, doesn't tend to carry things like headsets. Headsets (with microphones) are pretty much a must-have here for those of us using skype to keep in touch with family and friends (and boyfriends) back home.
After Argostoli, the plan was to visit Assos and Fiskardo -- Assos to see the town because it's beautiful and also to visit the HUGE castle on a hill that was built as a defense against pirates and foreigners back when they used to frequent (and raid) the island on a regular basis. Apparently the most frequent course of action was to kidnap a bunch of people, keep 'em on a boat off shore, and demand ransom money from those remaining on the island in exchange for the return of the hostages. Fiskardo because it was the ONLY town on the island that escaped destruction in the 1950's when Kefalonia was hit by a really big earthquake (rated 8 point something on the richter scale).
ANYWAY.
We decided that since Friday would otherwise be a LONG day, we would do Argostoli on Thursday (since we'd been rained and lightning-ed out of digging) and Assos/Fiskardo on their own on Friday.
To be continued...
Sunday, September 13, 2009
First Instalment
So here I am, sitting on my new Greek flag towel, my foldable beach mat and on the coast of the pebbly Ionian sea. I have no idea what time it is here or at home, which I’m thinking doesn’t matter so much right now. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely true. This was my intention (and I did beach lounge yesterday) I was just too lazy to bring my labtop to the beach today so really I’m on Shannon’s balcony overlooking the harbor.
It’s been a crazy week so far with mass confusion and more laughs this week than I’ve had than in any other period of time in my life. So i guess it’s a good time to recap! *ripply memory effect*
I did manage to have a relatively good sleep the night before I left, not sure if it was because of the Miki of Grey Goose me and Brandon drank (which honestly we were “supposed” to have one shot each per orange juice & vodka/lime and water and vodka but Brandon completely gave me more I just didn’t tell him because I knew he was proud of himself for trying to get me more drunk. Not sure if thats good or bad.) Irregardless, I slept surprisingly well. The day I left I don’t think I’ve ever been more panicked, running around the house because I was completely not ready to go, and I’m sure I was making Brandon feel terrible because of it. But, oh well I got it done and only forgot one adaptor plug (stupid grounder thingy!!).
I didn’t cry at the airport which was nice, but I sure as hell felt like it.
The trip there was an ORDEAL, you have no idea. YVR was fanatic as usual met everyone (Shannon, Amanda, Lessa, Simon, Neil and moi) safe and sound at Gate 64. Flight was good we did leave 20 mins late because some boozes decided to not go on the flight after all their luggage had been checked *shakes fist* . But, because of these boozes we were late to Heathrow, and with only an hour connection anyway, which is never a good thing. So after talking and fussing, and poking and prodding at the airline they finally decided...not to hold the plane for us. Uhhhgg. So they booked us on another airline, Olympic, for a 4:35pm causing us to wait for 5 hours. Horrible right? It gets better. So we went from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 without a hitch to wait for our flight, but upon arriving at said Terminal the man who was supposed to give us our boarding passes informed us that we might not get our luggage on the Olympic flight because of some mixup between the numbers on the baggage from BA and those of Olympic. So back to Terminal 5 we went (which is about a 15 min trek through security and bus) to talk to BA about this mixup. Apparently though all the baggage numbers are interchangeable and the man “who has been working for the company for 17 years” didn’t know this. Again back to Terminal 5, including security, and getting rid of water, but this time with a hitch (Oh by the way we’d been at the airport for like 2 hours now during this ordeal). Shannon had gone through security the first time with all her medical supplies including contact lense solution just fine, the second time however the security was adamant about not letting it though which is silly just because they let it go the first time. Whatever we were pissed of enough at this point that, this was completely outrageous. Finally with about an hour or so before we had to board we ate food with our 10 pound vouchers that we demanded from British Air and flew off to Athens. I’m not even going to talk about the food on the flight, lets just say I like hot dogs and I like chicken, but I do not like it when chicken tastes like hotdogs and leave it at that.
On our first day in Athens we visited the Acropolis (of course) which was fantastic, and not deathly hot which was also fantastic. Then we headed to the Plaka for lunch where I had some nummy nummy strawberry sherbet and some chicken souvalaki in a pita which was really really good eats (tribute to Altdon Brown I <3>
And now, since I forgot my three prong plug, my battery is dying so I have to steal Amanda’ss so I can charge my labtop! More soon hopefully, I’ll catch up eventually.
Athens!
It's September 13th -- It's been almost 7 days since my last glimpses of Vancouver!
We're in Poros, Kefalonia now, all settled in and aquainted with the town (and the beach!)
Athens was stellar! Definitely wouldn't want to live there - it's not a very clean city - but it was soooo interesting and different and quaint!
The six of us who had travelled together on the flight I described in my last post arrived at our hotel around 12:30-12:45am. Michelle, Simon and I shared a taxi and after comparing prices with everyone else found that we'd been given a pretty good deal (about 38 euros, a lot of others paid closer to 40-45 or even 50!).
Geoffrey (our prof) was waiting up for us and welcomed us each with a hug and a huge sigh of relief. He let us call home with his phone card and offered to venture out to find us some food if we needed it. His friendliness was just what we all needed, I think.
I fell asleep as soon as (or maybe even before) my head hit the pillow and felt fairly well-rested by the time I had to get up for breakfast and head with the group to start our 2-day archaeological tour! We started by walking up to the Acropolis (pictures to come...) which was incredible (though crowded). I still can't believe that we were staying within a 10-minute walk from it! We were also within walking distance of everywhere else we went to other than the national museum on day 2.
After the Acropolis we went to the "Plaka" (market) for lunch and to grab a few souvenirs for those so inclined. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the brand-new Acropolis Museum! No pictures of the inside of that because there were a few items on display that are still unpublished (how cool is that!?)
In the later afternoon, Michelle and I decided to walk up the "Hill of the Muses" which was right behind our hotel to get some sunset and night shots of the Acropolis. Much to our surprise, 16 or 17 of the 19 people in our group decided to join us! Fun times! I think this was one of the highlights for me... It was one of the first more low-key adventures that we've had. On our way down the hill, Michelle, Leesa, Amanada, Katie and I (who had stayed up at the top of the hill for a few minutes longer than the rest of the gang) met an American from Washington, DC who let me borrow his tripod to get a SWEET photo of the Acropolis after the sun went down.
In the evening, the six of us who had been stuck in Heathrow together (and Katie) decided to check out the restaurant that the group had eaten at the night before... Geoffrey's favourite. It was called "Strofi's" and it was definitely worth it! We ate on the roof (I don't know if an inside option even existed) and had a perfect view of the Acropolis. It was still warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt AND the food was fabulous too. I've decided that when buying groceries, I'm still going to avoid meat BUT when eating out, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The only option at Strofi's for vegetarians was the Greek salad sooo I opted for trying rooster and eggplant. Delicious!
Day two...
We started at 9am again and headed first to the Southern Slope of the Acropolis where we checked out the Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient road-way, an ancient burial site... a few other ancient things. Then we headed back through the Plaka, past a Roman something (I'll have to ask Geoffrey what it was called)... It was a type of monument anyway and at one point it had been hollowed out and made into a small library (where someone famous lived for a little while -- again, I'll have to check in with Geoffrey for these details. My head only holds so much information).
Part-way through the Plaka (maybe between Plakas?) we past Hadrian's Library! I love libraries...
Then we headed to the Agora (which in Antiquity was kind of like today's version of a downtown core)!
Aaahh! This was another highlight for me. We passed the house of Simon the cobbler (or so they think) Archaologists found shoe nails there which means that a cobbler lived there AND it was located right beside the political centre of the Agora; Plato writes that Socrates often used to philosophise at the house of Simon the cobbler which was located right next to the political centre since he wasn't allowed to philosophise in the Agora (sacred ground!)...
Anyway -- whether or not Socrates existed, Plato wrote about his activities, many of which took place in this Agora, which means that even if Socrates didn't wander around there, Plato certainly did! And me!! I wandered there too. How cool!!!!
After the Agora, we took a break for lunch and then went to check out the National Museum. Busy day! On our way home, however, Geoffrey was robbed on the subway! Gah!!
A few people had headed back early to the hotel but those of us who remained were going to head to one main subway stop and disperse from there (a few to go shopping and a few of us to hike up another large hill with another monument at the top...) ANYWAY. The plan was to hop on and get off in two stops and then we'd be given directions to our destinations at that point. There two were pushy guys (obviously, in hindsight, working together) who boarded the subway right after us and we were all surprised when Geoffrey instructed us to get off at the next stop (the first one) instead of the one we'd originally agreed on. We managed to spread the word to everyone in our group on that subway and we all hopped off.
Apparently a few of us (myself not included) had felt the thieves trying to get into pockets, but they'd been unsuccessful in getting anything from anyone other than Geoffrey who ended up having all the cash he'd been carrying disappear. He looked pretty stressed out (obviously) but kept himself well composed and continued to ensure that each of us knew where we were going, etc. CRAZY!! On the bright-ish side, at least we all know that pushy is not just a Greek thing and we'll all be more careful next time we experience something like that!
Michelle, Rebecca, Katie and I were the only ones interested in hiking up the hill at this point in time so we headed there together and, with the help of a Greek woman who showed us which street led to the hill from our metro station, we found our way to the top! (Lots of stairs and lots of cacti, but not nearly so bad as the Grouse Grind!).
The pictures from that hill aren't quite as good because it was kind of cloudy... Too bad because the hill was WAY higher than the one we went up on the first night!
We got back to our hotel around 8pm and hung out on the roof for a bit. I love that so many buildings in Greece have little roof-top hang outs with fabulous views and cute tables!
I went to bed early and set my alarm for six so I could watch the sunrise over the Acropolis... Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the morning. I did watch the clouds get brighter though! Then headed back to bed for another hour or two of sleep before breakfast and heading out to the van to meet our "Anarchist Bus Driver" and start the final leg of the journey to KEFALONIA!
And now we're here and we've been here for 2.5 days and it's beautiful and perfect and I love it. Will write more on what we've done since our arrival later. Much love!!
Shannon
We're in Poros, Kefalonia now, all settled in and aquainted with the town (and the beach!)
Athens was stellar! Definitely wouldn't want to live there - it's not a very clean city - but it was soooo interesting and different and quaint!
The six of us who had travelled together on the flight I described in my last post arrived at our hotel around 12:30-12:45am. Michelle, Simon and I shared a taxi and after comparing prices with everyone else found that we'd been given a pretty good deal (about 38 euros, a lot of others paid closer to 40-45 or even 50!).
Geoffrey (our prof) was waiting up for us and welcomed us each with a hug and a huge sigh of relief. He let us call home with his phone card and offered to venture out to find us some food if we needed it. His friendliness was just what we all needed, I think.
I fell asleep as soon as (or maybe even before) my head hit the pillow and felt fairly well-rested by the time I had to get up for breakfast and head with the group to start our 2-day archaeological tour! We started by walking up to the Acropolis (pictures to come...) which was incredible (though crowded). I still can't believe that we were staying within a 10-minute walk from it! We were also within walking distance of everywhere else we went to other than the national museum on day 2.
After the Acropolis we went to the "Plaka" (market) for lunch and to grab a few souvenirs for those so inclined. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the brand-new Acropolis Museum! No pictures of the inside of that because there were a few items on display that are still unpublished (how cool is that!?)
In the later afternoon, Michelle and I decided to walk up the "Hill of the Muses" which was right behind our hotel to get some sunset and night shots of the Acropolis. Much to our surprise, 16 or 17 of the 19 people in our group decided to join us! Fun times! I think this was one of the highlights for me... It was one of the first more low-key adventures that we've had. On our way down the hill, Michelle, Leesa, Amanada, Katie and I (who had stayed up at the top of the hill for a few minutes longer than the rest of the gang) met an American from Washington, DC who let me borrow his tripod to get a SWEET photo of the Acropolis after the sun went down.
In the evening, the six of us who had been stuck in Heathrow together (and Katie) decided to check out the restaurant that the group had eaten at the night before... Geoffrey's favourite. It was called "Strofi's" and it was definitely worth it! We ate on the roof (I don't know if an inside option even existed) and had a perfect view of the Acropolis. It was still warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt AND the food was fabulous too. I've decided that when buying groceries, I'm still going to avoid meat BUT when eating out, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The only option at Strofi's for vegetarians was the Greek salad sooo I opted for trying rooster and eggplant. Delicious!
Day two...
We started at 9am again and headed first to the Southern Slope of the Acropolis where we checked out the Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient road-way, an ancient burial site... a few other ancient things. Then we headed back through the Plaka, past a Roman something (I'll have to ask Geoffrey what it was called)... It was a type of monument anyway and at one point it had been hollowed out and made into a small library (where someone famous lived for a little while -- again, I'll have to check in with Geoffrey for these details. My head only holds so much information).
Part-way through the Plaka (maybe between Plakas?) we past Hadrian's Library! I love libraries...
Then we headed to the Agora (which in Antiquity was kind of like today's version of a downtown core)!
Aaahh! This was another highlight for me. We passed the house of Simon the cobbler (or so they think) Archaologists found shoe nails there which means that a cobbler lived there AND it was located right beside the political centre of the Agora; Plato writes that Socrates often used to philosophise at the house of Simon the cobbler which was located right next to the political centre since he wasn't allowed to philosophise in the Agora (sacred ground!)...
Anyway -- whether or not Socrates existed, Plato wrote about his activities, many of which took place in this Agora, which means that even if Socrates didn't wander around there, Plato certainly did! And me!! I wandered there too. How cool!!!!
After the Agora, we took a break for lunch and then went to check out the National Museum. Busy day! On our way home, however, Geoffrey was robbed on the subway! Gah!!
A few people had headed back early to the hotel but those of us who remained were going to head to one main subway stop and disperse from there (a few to go shopping and a few of us to hike up another large hill with another monument at the top...) ANYWAY. The plan was to hop on and get off in two stops and then we'd be given directions to our destinations at that point. There two were pushy guys (obviously, in hindsight, working together) who boarded the subway right after us and we were all surprised when Geoffrey instructed us to get off at the next stop (the first one) instead of the one we'd originally agreed on. We managed to spread the word to everyone in our group on that subway and we all hopped off.
Apparently a few of us (myself not included) had felt the thieves trying to get into pockets, but they'd been unsuccessful in getting anything from anyone other than Geoffrey who ended up having all the cash he'd been carrying disappear. He looked pretty stressed out (obviously) but kept himself well composed and continued to ensure that each of us knew where we were going, etc. CRAZY!! On the bright-ish side, at least we all know that pushy is not just a Greek thing and we'll all be more careful next time we experience something like that!
Michelle, Rebecca, Katie and I were the only ones interested in hiking up the hill at this point in time so we headed there together and, with the help of a Greek woman who showed us which street led to the hill from our metro station, we found our way to the top! (Lots of stairs and lots of cacti, but not nearly so bad as the Grouse Grind!).
The pictures from that hill aren't quite as good because it was kind of cloudy... Too bad because the hill was WAY higher than the one we went up on the first night!
We got back to our hotel around 8pm and hung out on the roof for a bit. I love that so many buildings in Greece have little roof-top hang outs with fabulous views and cute tables!
I went to bed early and set my alarm for six so I could watch the sunrise over the Acropolis... Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the morning. I did watch the clouds get brighter though! Then headed back to bed for another hour or two of sleep before breakfast and heading out to the van to meet our "Anarchist Bus Driver" and start the final leg of the journey to KEFALONIA!
And now we're here and we've been here for 2.5 days and it's beautiful and perfect and I love it. Will write more on what we've done since our arrival later. Much love!!
Shannon
Friday, September 11, 2009
Group Shot!
(Click on the picture to see a larger version!)
In order from left to right (I think - apologies for spelling errors!):
Chelsea, Cat, Vicki, Nella, Gail, Julie, Rebecca, Cassandra, Katie, Simon, Leesa, Geoffrey (our Prof and tour guide!), Michelle, Michelle (yes, there are two of them), Michael, Amanda, Neil, Braden, Ginny, Me (Shannon)!
This is our ENTIRE group -- we're in front of the Temple of Hephaestus (which was actually most likely a temple for both Hephaestus AND Athena).
In order from left to right (I think - apologies for spelling errors!):
Chelsea, Cat, Vicki, Nella, Gail, Julie, Rebecca, Cassandra, Katie, Simon, Leesa, Geoffrey (our Prof and tour guide!), Michelle, Michelle (yes, there are two of them), Michael, Amanda, Neil, Braden, Ginny, Me (Shannon)!
This is our ENTIRE group -- we're in front of the Temple of Hephaestus (which was actually most likely a temple for both Hephaestus AND Athena).
En Route!
I’m not sure when this post will make its way to our blog because I’m typing in the air somewhere between Heathrow and Athens (I think we’re pretty close to Milan at the moment) but it’s been a crazy day and I figure that perhaps recounting for you the details of our (Amanda, Leesa, Michelle, Neil, Simon, and myself) adventures en route to Athens from Vancouver will help relieve some of my stress and hopefully others will be inclined to fill in the gaps or comment on the different ways that this journey has impacted them!
Our flight was scheduled to leave Vancouver around 5:45pm (Vancouver-time) and so, for me, the afternoon hours were filled with long hugs and copious amounts of tears. I’m excited and thrilled to be going to Greece for the semester – the going part is easy! – but it’s difficult to say goodbye to the people at home. I’ve never been good at leaving.
I was a little worried about getting through customs since I have a larger-than-normal carry-on bag filled with the medical stuff I need to stay alive in Greece for the next three months or so! Here's a picture of everything I am bringing to Greece -- the only bag being checked is the big black one:
My anxiety was completely unjustified, however, and customs in Vancouver was a breeze – as was boarding!
We all found each other at the gate and spent a few minutes chatting before splitting up again (we hadn’t managed to get seats together on the plane).
Our flight was delayed for about 20 minutes because two individuals had checked in and then decided last minute that they actually didn’t want to go to Heathrow. The airport staff were then obligated to remove their luggage from the plane and so the rest of us were stuck waiting – le sigh.
The delay that had at first seemed like only a slight annoyance eventually led to quite a bit more trouble, however, when we arrived at Heathrow and made it off the plane at 11:15am (London-time) only to discover that we were not going to be able to make our connecting flight to Athens. The gate for boarding our flight was closed at 11:30am. We probably could have made it only five minutes or so late (the flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 11:50am anyway) if the airport staff hadn’t had to deal with so much bureaucracy getting us through the fast track and to the appropriate gate but alas – at least 15 of us (six of us heading to Athens together and a few other passengers making the same trips for holidaying purposes) missed the connection because apparently British Airways staff are willing to delay an entire plane for twenty minutes to appease two people in Vancouver but are not willing to delay a similar plane for five minutes to appease 15 people in London...
On a more cheerful note, at least we were together. Time for some bonding!
We insisted on being booked onto an “Olympic Air” flight leaving at 4:30pm rather than waiting for the next British Airways flight (which wasn’t leaving ‘til 9pm) and were assured by the British Airways staff that our luggage would be safely transferred along with us on this new itinerary as long as we gave the Olympic Air people our luggage tags to ensure that it could still be tracked, etc.
We meandered our way to Terminal 2 from Terminal 5 without too much trouble, made it back through security and had only to pick up our boarding passes before we were going to be able to use the washroom, grab some food (they’d given us £10 food vouchers because we complained that we’d starve if they didn’t...), and unwind a bit before completing the final leg of our journey. The guy at the desk who was giving out boarding passes was quite concerned about our luggage and didn’t seem to think that British Airways could be trusted to safely deliver our luggage to the appropriate place unless they’d planned on re-tagging each bag and giving us new luggage tags with flight numbers and destinations associated with our new flight plans. He insisted that we go back through security and bus our way back to Terminal 5 to speak with British Airways again before continuing on...
So we followed his advice and were assured by British Airways people that our luggage would make it and that the guy we had spoken too had been misinformed or was simply an idiot. They never actually said that but it was more or less implied. In any case, tired and weary and deeply frustrated, we all headed back AGAIN to Terminal 2 where I got stuck at security (the SAME EXACT check-in point where I’d gone through only half an hour earlier) and was not allowed to bring my contact lens solution on the plane with me. Bah. Tears didn’t help (for once) and so I’m wearing glasses ‘til we get to Athens because I had to take them out and use the solution I could before they threw the rest of it in the garbage.
Apparently the entire staff at Heathrow switches over around noon because there was someone new at the Terminal 2 check-in point as well! She was MUCH more helpful than the guy we’d spoken with earlier and even walked into the terminal to find us half an hour after we’d arrived to assure us that the luggage stuff had been dealt with; she’d been able to confirm that all of our bags were, in fact, going to be on the same plane as we were. I will let you know if this is actually true when we get to Athens... It does look promising though!
And now... here we are. On a plane only half-full. Which makes for great sleeping arrangements – I managed to get in a good 1.5 hour nap sprawled across three seats before they came to serve what I imagine was supposed to be food...
And that’s where things are at. We’re all a little disappointed that we missed our big group dinner at Geoffrey’s (professor running the trip) favourite restaurant in Athens buuut I think we’re all pretty grateful for the fact that we weren’t alone to deal with all of the mishaps and craziness that ensued! Here we are together, enjoying a few minutes of peace and relaxin' in Heathrow:
Much love friends!
Shannon
----
EDIT: Upon our arrival in Athens we were disappointed to discover that Simon's main bag had NOT, in fact, arrived with us. It's Friday today (three days after we got here) and his bag arrived at our hotel at 6am this morning. We leave for Kefalonia at 11am. Whew!
Our flight was scheduled to leave Vancouver around 5:45pm (Vancouver-time) and so, for me, the afternoon hours were filled with long hugs and copious amounts of tears. I’m excited and thrilled to be going to Greece for the semester – the going part is easy! – but it’s difficult to say goodbye to the people at home. I’ve never been good at leaving.
I was a little worried about getting through customs since I have a larger-than-normal carry-on bag filled with the medical stuff I need to stay alive in Greece for the next three months or so! Here's a picture of everything I am bringing to Greece -- the only bag being checked is the big black one:
My anxiety was completely unjustified, however, and customs in Vancouver was a breeze – as was boarding!
We all found each other at the gate and spent a few minutes chatting before splitting up again (we hadn’t managed to get seats together on the plane).
Our flight was delayed for about 20 minutes because two individuals had checked in and then decided last minute that they actually didn’t want to go to Heathrow. The airport staff were then obligated to remove their luggage from the plane and so the rest of us were stuck waiting – le sigh.
The delay that had at first seemed like only a slight annoyance eventually led to quite a bit more trouble, however, when we arrived at Heathrow and made it off the plane at 11:15am (London-time) only to discover that we were not going to be able to make our connecting flight to Athens. The gate for boarding our flight was closed at 11:30am. We probably could have made it only five minutes or so late (the flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 11:50am anyway) if the airport staff hadn’t had to deal with so much bureaucracy getting us through the fast track and to the appropriate gate but alas – at least 15 of us (six of us heading to Athens together and a few other passengers making the same trips for holidaying purposes) missed the connection because apparently British Airways staff are willing to delay an entire plane for twenty minutes to appease two people in Vancouver but are not willing to delay a similar plane for five minutes to appease 15 people in London...
On a more cheerful note, at least we were together. Time for some bonding!
We insisted on being booked onto an “Olympic Air” flight leaving at 4:30pm rather than waiting for the next British Airways flight (which wasn’t leaving ‘til 9pm) and were assured by the British Airways staff that our luggage would be safely transferred along with us on this new itinerary as long as we gave the Olympic Air people our luggage tags to ensure that it could still be tracked, etc.
We meandered our way to Terminal 2 from Terminal 5 without too much trouble, made it back through security and had only to pick up our boarding passes before we were going to be able to use the washroom, grab some food (they’d given us £10 food vouchers because we complained that we’d starve if they didn’t...), and unwind a bit before completing the final leg of our journey. The guy at the desk who was giving out boarding passes was quite concerned about our luggage and didn’t seem to think that British Airways could be trusted to safely deliver our luggage to the appropriate place unless they’d planned on re-tagging each bag and giving us new luggage tags with flight numbers and destinations associated with our new flight plans. He insisted that we go back through security and bus our way back to Terminal 5 to speak with British Airways again before continuing on...
So we followed his advice and were assured by British Airways people that our luggage would make it and that the guy we had spoken too had been misinformed or was simply an idiot. They never actually said that but it was more or less implied. In any case, tired and weary and deeply frustrated, we all headed back AGAIN to Terminal 2 where I got stuck at security (the SAME EXACT check-in point where I’d gone through only half an hour earlier) and was not allowed to bring my contact lens solution on the plane with me. Bah. Tears didn’t help (for once) and so I’m wearing glasses ‘til we get to Athens because I had to take them out and use the solution I could before they threw the rest of it in the garbage.
Apparently the entire staff at Heathrow switches over around noon because there was someone new at the Terminal 2 check-in point as well! She was MUCH more helpful than the guy we’d spoken with earlier and even walked into the terminal to find us half an hour after we’d arrived to assure us that the luggage stuff had been dealt with; she’d been able to confirm that all of our bags were, in fact, going to be on the same plane as we were. I will let you know if this is actually true when we get to Athens... It does look promising though!
And now... here we are. On a plane only half-full. Which makes for great sleeping arrangements – I managed to get in a good 1.5 hour nap sprawled across three seats before they came to serve what I imagine was supposed to be food...
And that’s where things are at. We’re all a little disappointed that we missed our big group dinner at Geoffrey’s (professor running the trip) favourite restaurant in Athens buuut I think we’re all pretty grateful for the fact that we weren’t alone to deal with all of the mishaps and craziness that ensued! Here we are together, enjoying a few minutes of peace and relaxin' in Heathrow:
Much love friends!
Shannon
----
EDIT: Upon our arrival in Athens we were disappointed to discover that Simon's main bag had NOT, in fact, arrived with us. It's Friday today (three days after we got here) and his bag arrived at our hotel at 6am this morning. We leave for Kefalonia at 11am. Whew!
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