Afterwards in Crete

     The morning of June 1st most of our group headed for the airport. People were thrilled to finally be going home and I was thrilled to finally see my family. I headed to Piraeus and picked them up from the ferry. I was so incredibly happy to see them. We spent the next 2 days touring Athens, seeing the Acropolis, and celebrating Maggie's birthday (my sister's friend). After that, we ferried back to Koutoulafari, Crete where we remained for the next 5 days. We enjoyed the sun, the nights out, the amazing-as-always food, and even day-tripped it to Santorini. The people there were so nice and all the knowledge I developed turned out to be pretty helpful for my family (and my little Greek, too!). June 7th we left Koutoulafari, flew from Heraklion to Athens, Athens to New York, and finally New York to Chicago. To be home seemed almost wrong-it was too easy for me to have a hot shower, a warm bed, a real phone, and a car. You don't realize how much you take for granted until it is taken away from you. I can say I will never ever take advantage of the simple things we have right here in the U.S.A.

The gang form Crete: Kostas, Dad, Mom, George, Me, Yiannis, Maggie, and Meghan

Monemvasia, May 28-31: "Last stop, a big castle and big spiders"

     As you can see it took me quite a while to return to sum up my trip (some of you might have gotten the hint with the very little writing I did about Sparta). Anyway, the morning of the 28th we woke up in Sparta, got on a public bus (oh, how I miss those buses now), and skidaddled over to Monemvasia. The city is basically an island that was attached with a man-made bridge a while back. It is incredible to look at. However, because we could not end our trip on a perfect note, the bus that goes from the mainland to the island of Monemvasia decided not to run on that day. So, the nice little lady who worked at the bus station let us load ALL of our bags into her car while we made the mile long trek to the city. Probably due to the anticipation of our trip coming to an end, this didn't really bother me as much as I expected. Anyway, we made it to the gate of the city (literally a gateway), and saw the most gorgeous site ever: the town is very small (like 1-road small) and is surrounded by old Venetian walls. The town is basically a courtyard within a giant castle. Everyone was in awe, until we found our first gianormous spider. Then the "awe" was more of a "ahh"...but our good ol' boys on the trip saved the day with a few sticks and helped us pass (this would be a one-time thing, most of the time, they just left us standing there and walked through/under the web). We settled into our castle rooms (yes, we slept in old castle rooms), and a few of us met Professor Boden and John for lunch and drinks at a rooftop cafe and enjoyed looking out at the sun peeking above the sea. I think it was this lunch that really made me realize how hard it was going to be to leave Greece. After we ate, a few of us returned to take naps, then showered, had our final review session and went out to dinner with a larger portion of us and both professors. Dinner was incredible and the woman doing the cooking was so generous. A few of us decided to buy her homemade red wine and I definitely think it was the best wine I had in Greece. The rest of the evening came to a close as most of us hung out around our rooms and just enjoyed each other's company.

Monemvasia-incredible, right?

The view of the sea from the lunch cafe

     Tuesday morning we all rolled out of bed at the crack of noon (just kidding, but we were able to sleep in once), went downstairs to eat a very simple, but delicious breakfast, and headed out to see the few sites for class before our exam. We ventured up the side of the cliff (because as you all know we climbed at least one mountain or cliff in every city), discussed the history that lay before our eyes, and headed up even further to the church. However, we reluctantly learned that it was locked. Yes, 1 of the 2 churches we came to see. GWA, right? Anyway, we posed for a few candid shots, talked about the church's architecture, and then were dismissed to roam about the cliff. A few of us decided to just sit and enjoy the view while studying, and then made our way down towards town. Once there, we sat in the square reminiscing about the good times we had on our trip as well as watching Jacquelyn being used by a class of Greek students practicing English (they had to present topics in English to her). Quite entertaining, I might add. Once we were rounded up for class, we visited the second important church of the town, looked over an AMAZING icon of the crucifixion (the icon itself, not the crucifixion of Jesus), and returned to our cute little rooms to study for the exam. Once the exam was finished, a few of us got dressed and headed out for another small dinner.

The church on the cliff that was closed

     Wednesday was our final day of the program. As people finished up their paper presentations, a few of us went to the mainland to get food for lunch and snacks for the bus trip back to Athens. In the afternoon, almost our entire group met each other out on a pier to soak up the last bits of the Mediterranean sun and enjoy the calmness of the Aegean Sea. It was honestly the perfect, last day anyone could have asked for. After returning for showers, a few of us got all dolled up for our final group meal in Greece, and ventured out for drinks. Before I left, I was fortunate enough to skype my family who had FINALLY made it to Crete. They had a bit of a struggle with their flights, but 36 hours later, and no baggage to be found, they made it. My dad said the place was amazing and they had already made friends in the town (two of them even jumped in to say hello on skype). Although I was out-of-my-mind excited to see my family, I realized that this would be my last night with a different family. We had a fantastic dinner. The food and the atmosphere were perfect. We laughed at all the memories created; we joked about all of our professors and their unique quirks; we even shed a few tears once we realized how close we had gotten. The night ended quietly with us returning to pack up and prepare for our early departure the next morning. 

Jacquelyn in her donkey towel at the beach; the last day of the trip and she finally had her own towel

     Thursday morning we were fortunate to catch the shuttle bus back to the mainland and make our way back to Athens. There was a lot of excitement yet a bit of sorrow in everyone's moods. I remained quiet for most of the bus ride back just thinking about everything I had been through in the last 3 months. I know I attempted to keep this blog to hopefully express my emotions throughout my journey to all of you back home in the States, but unless you are there and in the moment, my journaling suits only to entertain readers and cannot captivate my true experience. We returned to Athens, took a taxi back to Backpackers, and made plans with our Professors and the rest of the group to meet us for one last night out at the Sports Bar. We of course did a bit of karaoking and Irish Car Bombs for old times sake, but we just let ourselves enjoy the friends that surrounded us.

Irish Car Bombs right before Karoake began at BP Sports Bar

     Even though we all had our ups and downs, our homesick nights, our tearjerking laughter, our GWA grumblings, our hungover class days, our constant unpacking and repacking, our endless travel days with George and the yiayias, and our inside jokes, I am so thankful that I was able to have the experience that I did. I have made countless new friends from Lake Forest and beyond, and I am just so grateful that they could take part in the memory-making that changed my life forever.

2012 Lake Forest College Greece Program

Sparta, May 25-27: “Is this really Sparta?”

     Friday morning came too quickly as we left super early on a public bus for Sparta. Our hotel, the Maniatis, was really nice, even though the town itself was a bit rough. Some people really enjoyed the town, however, I found it a bit boring. That evening, we met for class to visit the site of the Spartan agora and theater. Even though it wasn’t Byzantine, John assumed we would want to check it out since it was our first visit to Sparta. I actually think our class loved it more than most sites because there were no guards and we didn’t need to take notes. We may or may not have acted a bit ridiculous at the site, but it was an enjoyable outing on our first day. After class, a group of us made dinner at the hotel and ended our night watching “Baby Mama”.

Me kicking Cuzi while yelling “This is Sparta!”

         Saturday the class loaded into taxis and headed up to the upper site of Mystras. This was an important city during the Byzantine Empire and is the site of a palace, a few monasteries, and churches. The view was spectacular and the sites were remarkable. Once class was finished, we had a group lunch in Sparta at a “home-cooked” restaurant, returned to the hotel for a siesta, and ended the evening with another movie-“Date Night”.

The Palace of Ancient Mystras

         Sunday the class ventured, again by taxis, to the lower portion of the sites at Mystras. Here we viewed the Metropolis church, a nunnery, and a monastery with a church that is commonly referred to as “the boss”. Mystras is very interesting because the ancient town seems to be well-preserved (i.e. the churches, houses, and the palace). The rest of the evening, again, was pretty low-key as we grabbed an early dinner, hung out talking with friends, and watched “The Hunger Games” before calling it a night.

One of the old monasteries at Mystras