Athena Must Have Done Something Right

KALEE SPERA JOSH!!!!

Let me just tell you--I am loving this trip. If you ever get the chance to hitchhike to Europe, take it. Especially if that offer is actually a first class plane ticket. You can even settle for a study abroad trip that uses economy class seating (yes, the pillows and food suck--but it's an intense battle of who gets the armrest. Riveting).

I was last able to shoot you a letter while heading to Athens, and when I got there I must say that my initial reaction was a bit of disappointment mixed with hunger. We pulled up to the hotel and there was graffiti everywhere, broken down cars and trash littering the streets, and it smelled like sewage. Boy, I sure missed gorgeous, quaint, mountain flower scented Delphi. I plopped down on the hotel room's cot/a-couple-of-those-airport-pillows-glued-to-some-PVC-pipe and decided to buy some spray paint so I could join in on the city's favorite pastime later that evening. However, once we headed down the street, mastered the metro system, and came out in a dinner place I realized there are actually some cute places and Athens. So, I dropped the spray paint idea and enjoyed a pretty decent meal from a cute Greek restaurant named Vyzantino. We got this delicious layered eggplant/potatoes/other random stuff casserole-looking thing called Moussaka, a delicious super fresh salad (BEST TOMATOES HERE EVER), really great fresh bread, some 'eh' meat/rice/french fries, and the grossest mushy dessert cake ever. Overall, tasty :)

The next day I wandered down to breakfast with a backup Poptart hanging out in my bag (just in case), but this hotel in Athens actually has freshly baked crusty bread every morning. So fresh that you cut it yourself. They just have a huge basket of different types of bread loaves, a cutting board, and a knife. I just took half of a loaf to go. Someone said something about the Les Mis stealing bread thing... I didn't go to Greek prison for forever though! Besides, if I had been sent to prison, at least I would have had the Poptart!

Then we hopped on the bus for a tour of Athens. I may have slept through a tiny part of the tour, but in my defense we had to get up super duper early. I did get to see the tomb of the unknown solider and several important monuments, though. The bus dropped us off near the Acropolis and after checking out our tour guide Fay's family gift shop (maybe? she had several grandchildren running around the store--so, I assume it was hers) we headed to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. Personally, I was really pumped about the Parthenon after seeing the one in Nashville so many times. I was actually kind of surprised though--it's really not what I thought it would look like. A lot of it has fallen down, there was scaffolding everywhere, and that huge Athena statue is nowhere to be found. It's not even in the museum! The view from the top of the Acropolis (the hill that the Parthenon sits on top of) was phenomenal though. Pretty much the view from anywhere high is pretty good looking, but this was a 360 view of beauty. After pretty much falling down the Acropolis, I finally made it back to un-rocky ground where we stopped for lunch at a sit down restaurant where I got chicken souvlaki (basically a chicken kabob) and fried cheese (pretty good, not as good as the other restaurant).

Then it was the Acropolis museum for more history, more great views, and some pretty interesting information. First of all, this museum was built on top of some ancient ruins and instead of just covering them up (like most greek and italian buildings have done) they built windows in the floor so you can look down on the old house ruins and pipes and everything. It is super cool. I also went and watched this nerdy video about the Parthenon that almost everyone else was avoiding. I thought it was interesting though! The Parthenon is actually 16,500 pieces and they just joined them all perfectly together, it has been 25 centuries since its construction, it took nine years to build it, the building is the only building throughout the ages that was built without straight lines (it's curved so you can see all of the columns) and it has 378 figures throughout the entire structure. Can you say nerd alert!?

The rest of the day we had free time where I went shopping and to dinner with Molly, Haley, and Kyser. While we were shopping Kyser disappeared for a little bit and when he got back I can't really remember what he said, but basically he produced a can of...drum roll please...DR. PEPPER. I pretty much freaked out--may have teared up from overexcitement. I'm pretty sure he found the only place that has it in all of Greece and Italy and it was delicious. Definitely a great way to start the night off! Then we headed off to find dinner and somehow wound up at a place called Topika which was one of the best places I've eaten in Greece thus far. I had a gyro and we just sat and talked for about three hours. It was super relaxing.

Finally, we took a cab home (Haley had never been in one, so we had to try it out! Plus, they are super cheap here) instead of trying to maneuver the metro system. After we got back I went to sleep which brings us to today!

Side Note: Sorry for the monsterous posts when I don't have time to send anything one day!

This morning we woke up at 6:30 (which means I am super tired now) and headed out to take a one day cruise through the Aegean Sea to some of Greece's smaller islands. We were supposed to hit Hydra, Aegina, and Poros; however, the sea was absolutely nuts today because of storms, so we only made it to Aegina and Poros. The wind and rain didn't stop the majority of the group (the non seasick ones) from having a kickbutt time though. The boat was a medium-sized boat with three levels and an inside cabin. About 7-8 of us sat at a table in the cabin and played a bajillion rounds of card games while traveling from island to island. The first island we went to had a bell tower that I climbed to in the crazy freezing rain. The view and the chance to see a ton of cute little greek houses made it worth it. Plus, we got hot chocolate before hopping back on the boat to go to Aegina where we took a bus to a Pistachio farm. Also, I bought some DELICIOUS BEST EVER kiwi from a little fruit stand.

We got back to the big city around 7:00 and a group of eight of us MAY or may not have headed to McDonalds where they MAY or may not have had something called a Greek Mac (A Gyro fast food style) that MAY or may not have been delicious. Not saying I went to McDonalds, but I do approve of trying out the McDonalds' in different countries because they each have unique items! Pretty dang cool.

As you can tell, my initial opinion of Athens has changed. Although the street our hotel is on is still pretty disgusting, the giant city is still pretty fun and interesting. In fact, the city has this really cool thing with stray dogs and cats. They are everywhere and they are super clean and friendly. The thing is, the city picks them up and gives them health shots, fixes them, and then lets them go again. From there, they just love on people all over the city, run around and play, and basically get fed by everyone. They really like big groups, so they'll herd our group around like sheep and bark at strangers that get too close. It's pretty hilarious. I think the system is interesting, and although I don't like animals that much I appreciate the good life the city is providing for those slobbery, hair-filled, peeing on my bedroom carpet things.

Alright! I'm going to head out and try and enjoy as much of the last couple of days as I can!!! I'll be seeing you soon (half frown face, half happy face).

Love,

Greek Maddie 

Greetings from Greece, Day 9 Adventures

Greetings from gorgeous Greece:

We are on our way from Delphi to Athens right now and I am taking a break from the beautiful scenery to write you a bit of a letter. We’ve just spent most of the day in Delphi, and I am sad to say goodbye. Once I’m able to post photos, you will see why I’ve been mesmerized by these views, the town, and all of the people.

It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon and I’ve done quite a bit since the last time I was able to send you something. When we woke up this morning we had a delicious breakfast (great peaches, sweet bread, and hardboiled eggs) and headed two minutes down the road to the Oracle of Delphi’s stomping grounds. The oracle of Delphi was extra important because people only came to Delphi with the big questions about war and peace. There were other oracles, but this one was for more than just everyday minutia—I thought that was pretty cool.

We first stopped at this little museum where a tour guide shared fascinating stories behind the sculptures that were in the museum from an excavated Apollo’s temple. Thanks to you, I knew a lot of the Greek gods and goddesses she was talking about.

Josh. You would have thought you had died and gone to Mount Olympus if you had been there. The amount of that temple that was on display without glass covering it was just phenomenal. I could walk up to it with barely an inch blocking me from the depiction of Nike or Athena. Dr. Pizzo said this was one of the only times in history people would be able to get that close to such phenomenal illustrations of history.

We left the museum and went to the actual site of the old temple and various different parts of the area. It was a ginormous hill to climb to see everything, but the view was completely worth it. There were huge mountains and beautiful architecture everywhere. I’m not usually a view obsessive gal, but Greece sure has blown my mind. Even the bus we are riding on has a camera in the front of it (like the one on cars used to back up) that plays the image on the television screens to show everyone the amazing view. It’s pretty dang cool.

After the views, we headed to this place named Agelos for lunch where I tried this fried cheese in Fila bread (the most delicious cheese stick I’ve ever had. We need to get these in the states) and a pasta with rooster dish. Everyone at my table was quick to swap bites of meals, so I got to taste some pretty good food throughout lunch. I think the cheese sticks were still my favorite though.

After that we headed to see this little monastery, and that was not as exciting as some of the things we have done; however, it had really gorgeous views and the weather was pretty nice so we had a good time relaxing.

Now that we are in Greece it has really hit everyone that we are over the middle hump of our trip, and I am starting to get pretty sad that the trip is going to end. So far it has been one of the coolest things I have ever done (maybe THE coolest), and I just don’t want it to end. Plus, the whole going back to school thing seems pretty lame comparatively. I’m thinking maybe that you and the fam can just move up here and we will move into a house that kind of looks like the monastery with gorgeous views and a big courtyard. We will eat fried cheese sticks every week. And bam! Live happily ever after.

Our tour guide today said humans tend to only be influenced if they think something else is interesting and not inferior. I know that on this trip there has been some things the group thinks America does better (WHAT!? THEY DON’T HAVE DR. PEPPER!???), but there has also been a lot I have learned from Italy and Greece. I don’t know if I have had some sort of drastic change so far, but this trip has definitely influenced me. I hope one day you will be able to travel here or even somewhere else that has something interesting enough to influence you.

Love,

Maddie 

Greetings from Greece, Delighted in Delphi

Josh Jacob Jingleheimer Mucci.

I am in Delphi, Greece and it is the cutest little town ever. It’s basically just one really long road that just barely fit our huge bus and there are little stores up and down the whole thing. We are only here for one night though and we are staying at a hotel called Parnassos that barely has Internet connection. So, hopefully I can upload these blogs tonight, but I still probably don’t have enough for pictures. We got to the hotel and dropped our stuff in our room—Go room 104! I am rooming with Elsa and Megan again, but this time we have a super tiny room with three twin sized beds all smushed together so we barely have room to move around. It has this little balcony looking out onto that town street though, and that is so cute. Also, there is a fireplace in the lobby and I kind of want to just go sleep in front of that—it looks great. I seriously want to move here. I am terrible at the Greek language though.

After we dumped our stuff, we headed to a restaurant two doors down named Epikouros. We got this delicious soup (It was just like broth kind of? It was semi-cheesy. I just know I couldn’t stop talking about how good it was), soft bread, the juiciest chicken in the whole world, perfectly seasoned potatoes, and some sort of nut/honey/lemon cake. The waiters were getting a kick out of our Greek attempts, but they all spoke English so we didn’t have any issues communicating.

At dinner I was explaining my problem with running out of words to say how awesome everything is here. I feel like everything is great, but I can’t keep saying this was great, that was great, or you will stop reading my letters to you! So, I got some suggestions of words to use from the gang.

Also, this girl Molly on the trip (she is super hilarious all of the time—sarcastic, loud, and witty type of hilarious) was making us laugh so hard during dinner and that was great fun. Now we are just chilling out before bed—we moved another hour ahead, so now I am eight hours in front of you back home. It sounds like we have a pretty packed day tomorrow, so I am pretty excited.

So far I am surprised at how much I love Greece. I really thought Italy would be my favorite trip, but now I’ll have to keep an open mind!

Over and Out!!!

Maddie

Greetings from Greece

Hey Josh!

I’m in Greece! We just got off the ferry ride and are on the bus to our hotel in Delphi. Just a little bit ago we were in some small Greek town that was super cute. I am surprised to say that I liked it better than some of the Italy cities because it was smaller and less tourist focused. Now it is pitch black and I can’t see out the window, but I know we are by the sea which is really cool and beautiful. Also, the roads are so windy and crazy that this typing might actually make me seasick.

The big ferry we were just on actually didn’t make me seasick! It was even bigger than I thought it would be, bro! Like, there were over 20 semi trucks in the bottom of the boat. That’s how big it was. A semi would NOT have fit in our room though. All of the rooms were basically just this tiny bathroom and two bunk beds. Luckily, I was in a room with just Elsa and Megan so we could put our luggage on the fourth bed. The ride was really fun—we played cards, explored, and chatted. I even went and danced in the dance party room. No one would dance with me though, so I just did several “Hitch moves” by myself in the middle of the dance floor. Don’t worry. The DJ was WAY impressed.

Also, the top of the boat’s view of the islands we were passing was so pretty. The views I have been blessed with seeing and experiencing on this trip have just been incredible, and pictures don’t do them justice at all. I wish I could share my mind videos of them with people, so that they could see the beautiful world God has made for us. Or at least that I could teleport people here to see the beauty.

I thought several things about the boat. I thought it would be expensive to buy anything. I was right. I thought the boat would sway back and forth while I was sleeping. I was wrong (it was more of shaking and vibrating). I thought the food would be awful. I was wrong—it was our first Greek food and it was actually pretty good meet on a skewer, rice, fresh kiwis, and French fries. The ketchup tasted odd though. I thought I would not be able to sleep. I was wrong. I slept so well—the room had no windows and was pitch black, which made for perfect sleeping. I feel very rested now.

Well, even though I didn’t get seasick on the bus, I’m starting to get carsick from writing to you. So, I will try and write soon and let you know how Greece is!

Love,

Maddie

P.S. We have started to learn some Greek, but I am really terrible at it. You have to roll the ‘R’ letters, and after trying a ton Kostas deemed that I was just getting worse. So, I guess I can’t be Greek. 

Florence Festivities

Josh:

The last couple of days I have been in Florence, Italy and it has been so crazy I haven’t had time to write to you. Good news though—I made it to 2013! Also, I have officially gotten all my photos to load to my computer; however, the Internet is really flighty here so I’ll have to wait until I get somewhere with better connection to upload them.

Florence has been so awesome. We’ve really only been here one full day because we went to Pisa yesterday and went to Assisi before we arrived the first day. So, New Years Eve was the only full day in Florence, and I definitely want to come back for longer sometime.

Since I haven’t written in such a long time (really only a few days, but when studying abroad a lot happens in that little number of days), I thought I would just give you a short ‘schedule of events’ and then go more in detail about some of the things I had random thoughts about. Because you know you want to hear my random thoughts J

Schedule of Florencian (made up word) Events:

Italy Day Four:

            --Woke up in Rome at 7:04 when we were supposed to be packed, dressed, and ready to go in the lobby at 7:15! Our alarm hadn’t gone off, so we rushed around like maniacs and made it on time. I think Rome just didn’t want us to leave J

            --A long bus ride to Assisi with GORGEOUS views of Italy and lots of winding roads

            --A gross pizza lunch in Assisi (My second food fail of the trip, at this point I was getting nervous that I would waste all of my Italian meals by choosing the gross food places)

            --A tour of Assisi and St. Frances church—the town was so quaint and adorable. It actually felt like we were in a place where people live for the first time. There were still a ton of tourists there though.

            --Bus ride to Florence (I absolutely napped hardcore on this bus ride. Yay for power naps!)

            --Arrive at a HOSTEL in Florence—not a hotel, a hostel. I think everyone in the group was freaking out a little bit, but it ended up being a really enjoyable experience--more on that and what I thought of Florence later.

            --Renaissance Dinner at Palazzo Borghese Firenze (The most fun dinner we’ve had yet—more on this later, too)

            --Group party at the hostel—most of the study abroad group really bonded this night, which was pretty cool. We definitely feel more like a family now.

            --Sleep!!

Italy Day Five:

            --Tour of both the Duomo and the rest of Florence in the morning. The Duomo is this HUGE church building that is so detailed and beautiful on the outside; however, it was actually pretty plain on the inside.

            --Visit to the Leather Shop. Florence is really famous for both its leather and its stationary, so part of our tour was a stop at this leather shop to see how they made these leather jewelry boxes. It was one of the more interesting stops of the tour and it smelled SO GOOD. I love the smell of leather. Then for the first time really the adults told us we had the entire afternoon off to go explore and hang out, so we started by looking around the leather shop for souvenirs.

            --Lunch at this tiny place by a huge outdoor market. I had this spicy penne (It was called something different, but I forget the elaborate name), and it was one of the better things I have had on the trip. It was so good—I was nervous that I would have another food fail! It would have been really upsetting to have three food fails in a row L The owner of the shop really didn’t like us very much at this lunch place though—normally the Italians don’t mind us tourists—this guy was mad at our Italian-speaking attempts and everything. He even snapped at one girl for saying ‘grazie’ wrong—we were pretty much terrified to say thanks to anyone for the rest of the day.

            --Shopping in the local ‘flower market.’ I actually didn’t see any flowers, so maybe I was confused about the name; however, there were tons of stands with beautiful Italian scarves, leather bags, and a few tourist-y things. Having the afternoon to just hang out and shop at these really cool stands was one of the best parts of the trip thus far.

            --Gelato! Even though I had been told by many, many people to buy gelato in Italy before coming, up to this point I hadn’t had a chance (or enough room in my stomach) to get any. Finally, I went to one of the most famous gelato places in Italy—Vivoli—and had raspberry/chocolate gelato. It tasted exactly like the best raspberries you could imagine.

            --Nap (It was New Years Eve! I had to prepare to stay up late!)

            --Dinner at this fancy place (I forget the name). This was the LONGEST dinner I have ever experienced. Literally. We arrived at around 7:30 and did not finish our dessert until 11:45. I’m pretty sure after the third course of pasta everyone wanted to explode. Personally, eating is one of my favorite things in the world, which meant that the 591093488 courses they served us were perfect to eat. I’m pretty sure I’m still full from that meal. It was a delicious four different pasta courses, several appetizers, several meat dishes, and a dessert trio.  SIDE NOTE: During the dinner a really drunk guy came over to our dinner and tried to sit down at one of the tables. Apparently he said something really rude, and less than a blink later Kostas, our tour director, popped up and talked to him extremely quickly in Italian to get him to back off. I’m pretty sure after that he became the superhero of the group.

            --New Years Eve in a big square. We barely made it out to the square in time to see midnight, but we got there about ten minutes before. Everyone was in a wide circle/clump thing around the square and was throwing fireworks into the middle. It was so loud. Then at midnight people went crazy and were popping champagne, breaking bottles, throwing fireworks and running around like nuts in the smoky square. I actually missed my couch-filled New Years Eve, but I made the most of the craziness. The walk back was a competition to see how many people I could get to say ‘Buon Anno’ (kind of sounds like banana) back when I screamed it at them. Surprisingly, not that many.

            --Party in the Hostel’s ‘Teen Club.’ The hostel had a raging dance session going on, so I went downstairs to people watch and hang out with friends before heading back upstairs to grab some Zs.

            --Sleep, Sleep, Sleep!

Italy Day Six:

            --Wake up at 10:30 (Sleep in day!)

            --Take a bus to a Vineyard in Tuscany (Also beautiful)

            --Lunch/Wine Tasting at the Fattoria Il Pioggio Vineyard. Although I was still pretty full from the dinner the night before, I found a way to eat almost everything at lunch. The food was so fresh and flavorful—we had this vegetable soup (I normally hate vegetable soup) that was so good I’ve been craving it ever since. I also tried all of the food on the table and each of the different wines. We learned a lot about the family’s farm, how to appreciate wine, and the huge difference between freshly grown food and our food back home. Also, the lady who told us about the family, the wine, and the homegrown food was really funny and liked our group a lot.

            --Long bus ride to Pisa.

            --A guided tour of Pisa. It was a lot more elaborate of a town than I had imagined. It was pretty exciting to see the leaning tower after I’ve seen it in pictures (AND ON ARTHUR…go PBS) for forever. The tower is 15,000 TONS of marble. It’s crazy that it stands up as much as it does with that kind of weight. After the tour we had a little bit to roam around the town and see its quaintness, which was nice.

            --Long bus ride home (Lots of  bus time today)

            --Dinner at this Pizzeria off of the Piazza di Independencia (We were craving pizza after Pisa) where I got this focaccia that was delicious. It was this pizza with a top of crust on it, so double the crust basically.

            --Hang out, Pack, Clean, Chill/Watch people play pool in the Teen Club.

            --Go to McDonalds (shhhhh…) with Molly, Kyser, and Haley where we got cheeseburgers and fries. It tasted so good to have something other than pasta. Plus, they had a McFlurry with Nutella mixed in, these delicious seasoned fries called ‘Miami Fries,’ and chocolate doughnuts. McDonalds here don’t give out ketchup often, wouldn’t customize my cheeseburger (no pickles, no onions please? No, no. Cheeseburger), and allow dogs in the restaurant!  Overall, I’m glad we secretly went…don’t tell anyone though J

            --SLEEP!

Today:

            We are supposed to leave the hostel soon, take a five hour bus ride to this port called Ancona where we will leave on a huge ferry, and then take the boat for 24-hours to Greece! I’m not sure if the boat has Wi-Fi or what it will be like at all. I know I will have a blast no matter what though! If it has Wi-Fi, I will post this then. If not, I will have to wait until we get to Delphi. We will see…

A few more follow up notes:

Going back to the whole hostel thing! I was worried we would have to share rooms with strangers, sleep on the terrible floor/fungus infested beds, and that it would just be overall a bad experience. However, it was actually really nice, clean, and everyone was friendly. It was called PLUSflorence, and was definitely geared toward younger folks. I stayed in a room with five other girls from the group, and we had two bunk beds and two regular beds. Plus, the mattresses were actually comfy even though I wished I had my own pillow. Sharing a bathroom between six girls even ended up working out! The basement of the hostel had what the group deemed the ‘Teen Club’ because it had pool, a wii, a dance floor, and a bunch of booths everywhere. At night, everyone would hang out in the ‘Teen Club’, which ended up being a great bonding experience.

The one night we went to that Renaissance restaurant I had mentioned, and it was seriously the most fun dinner in all of Italy. We walked into this old castle where the workers were all dressed in costumes and walked into the main dining hall where the set up was pretty fancy. They had a  ‘welcome drink’ for us when we came in, harp music playing, dancers and different dances, and several games that we played throughout the night. They got several people to participate in the games, which was absolutely hilarious. I’m not sure how much we paid to go there, but I would definitely recommend it for anyone who comes to Italy.

Alright, that was the trip to Florence/Assisi/Tuscany/Pisa! I can’t wait to come back and hang out in these towns for longer because they are really so adorable. I’d love to bring you and the rest of the family back because I think you would love it. I really think you will love Greece though, Josh. You know, with all of the Greek mythology stuff that happens there. I can’t wait to tell you what happens there, too.

Love,

Maddie