Delphi/dinner/and Hydra

Again, I apologize for not keeping you better informed... the internet has been particularly hard to come by in the last week.

Last Sunday we stayed home after our wonderful day at Aegina on Saturday. I felt very domestic - doing laundry (in the bathtub) and mopping the floors of our bathroom, kitchen, hallway and foyer.

Monday we took a day trip to Delphi - the Sacred Oracle of Apollo. Stella took us up the Sacred Way, where we saw what remains of the treasuries and monuments, the remnants of some Roman additions, but were unfortunately stopped about half way up, even before the temple because of some falling rocks :( We also visited the museum, were we saw a beautiful statue of Antinoos and the famous Charioteer. I have decided I love museums and love taking pictures of statues and sculpture.

On Tuesday we had lectures for 7 hours :( and a meeting with the registrar, who informed me that I was able to take the three classes that I needed as all of them were being offered! What a blessing! Wednesday we had a slow morning, coming down to the University to check for internet, and Amy and I spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering through Monastiraki doing some window and actual shopping! I found some good bargains, and walked into an 11th century church which I have kind of fallen in love with, just sitting in the middle of one of the streets down into the Monastiraki area. Inside I met up with a young German tourist (I think I have a magnet) and we spoke briefly about Greece and Germany etc. etc. etc. Later on Wednesday night, all of the BCA students met up with Deo, his friend Napoleon and the boys' other roommate Ludo, and went to dinner at a restaurant in the Plaka with traditional Greek folk dancing! It was great fun, and we were even allowed to use a few of the steps we had learned at our Greek dancing lesson up on stage. I felt very educated in my Greek music as I knew probably four or five of the songs that they played from a CD collection Lucy and I once bought for our parents. I think I have probably used it the most now :)

Thursday morning, after very little sleep :( Kaitlyn, Lauren, Amy and I all got up early and again took the Metro down to Piraeus, to take a flying dolphin to the island of Hydra. Hydra took about an hour and a half to get to, and we arrived a little after 9:30. We ending up just wandering along the port, past boats and donkeys. Hydra is almost completely motor vehicle free, with only an occasional trash truck, and donkeys (and I believe a saw a few mules as well) are the only form of transportation. Many of the shops were closed, as not many of the in and out tourists do not arrive until later on in the day, so we wandered all the way up to where there were a few windmills, tremendous views and gorgeous blue water and sky. The largest windmill was actually the one that was restored for the 1957 movie Boy on a Dolphin with Sophia Loren and Alan Ladd. We wandered down along the coast for a while, climbing many stairs up into the back part of the town, and then came back down to the port. We were all feeling a little hungry, so stopped in a marvelously quaint bakery at the end of a dead end street. After finding a bench, across from a stand of donkeys, we ate our various pastries while watching some Greek kittens. We were also treated to the influx of tourists at around 10:30, who flocked into the shops which opened up for the occasion. The man with the donkeys across from us yelled every now and then at the tourists saying "donkey, yes?" and something in Japanese to the Japanese tourists. When we had finished our mid-morning snack, we did some shopping, (I found a beautiful set of worry beads, which I have been testing out for the past 2 and a half weeks, and met with a friendly French shop owner who spoke 5 languages. We asked her what to do on the island, and she recommended a small village just to the left of the actual town of Hydra. We followed her advice, finding that we had already walked almost to the village in our previous excursion, but discovered a pebble beach where we stood in the surf for almost half an hour. We all agreed that we could probably have stayed there for much longer. We walked back into town, (which took around 30 minutes) and walked over to the opposite side of the port, where there is a large statue of famous Greek general from Hydra, and a large type of turret with cannons. Here we rested and watched the sea for around 30-45 minutes... I spent a significant amount of that time lying on a cannon (which was awesome). Around 3:30 we went to go find lunch, and ended up at a gyro and souvlaki shop over by the windmill, which was fantastic. They had two tables outside with a bench, where we sat and ate happily and in peace, looking out at the harbor, and watching the owner play fetch with a cat. Our flying dolphin back to Athens left at 4:25, and we had to say goodbye to the lovely island with donkeys and the "Sophia Loren windmill".