Joannaville

"Joannaville" is the town where our tourguide, Joanna was born. It is just outside of Sparta. We spent one afternoon there. Our leaders would not tell us the name of the town however, they would only refer to it as Joannaville, so I went with it.
Joannaville was an adorable, sleepy little town, which was completely perplexed by the notion of tourists. Little brick cottages lined the hillsides, grapes grew off the porches of these homes, laundry hung outside to dry in backyards that often held chickens or other kinds of farm animals as well as vegetable gardens. It was the kind of town where people still grow their own food. There were almost no cars. I loved it.
My favorite part of this town was the 4000 year old trees that stood outside of a little church near the town square. These trees were colossal and mangled and begging to be climbed...so climb them we did. My friends Anna and Devin and I spent a good hour or so high up in the the branches of one. Anna and I found one branch that had a bathtub shaped recess in it that held the two of us perfectly. It was such a fun day. I often entertain notions of my own maturity, along with which comes cynicism, skepticism, and seriousness. However, then there are those times where my inner child takes over, and in those moments I find myself thrilled with life. I hope I never lose the ability to be awed.

Photos from Napflio

Napflio was an adorable seaside town. We were there fore two nights. The best part was a hike up to a castle on the top of a mountain (1000 stairs). The view from the top was just breathtaking. I got to see it at sunset, and then the next morning, my friend Anna and I decided to get up early and climb back up to the top to catch the sunrise. It was a beautiful little town.

Greece: Delphi

Delphi was by far my favorite Grecian city of the trip. Our hotel, "Hotel Acropole" was once someone's home, turned into an adorable bed and breakfast. Delphi is a quiet mountain town. It's residents looked somewhat bewildered at the arrival of two huge buses, which barely fit down their quiet little streets, loaded with load Americans. My roommate Anna and I had a little balcony outside of our window which had a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and valleys below.
We ate a large group lunch late in the afternoon at a restaurant down the street from the hotel. The meal was memorable, Greek salad of course, appetizers, bread, rosemary chicken and pasta followed by desert. Rachel Dratch, an actress from Saturday Night Live was in the restaurant with several family members. Before we got there, there were no other diners in the quiet little restaurant. I imagine she was on a family vacation in a place she thought she could hide out easily. She was probably horrified when 80 American college students descended upon the restaurant and proceeded to obnoxiously try and photograph her while eating. She left soon after we got there.
After Lunch we went to the Parnassos Mountain to see the ruins of Delphi which include the temple of Apollo, where the Delphic Oracle used to tell of her premonitions. Our tour guide quickly destroyed all the mysterious surrounding the place by telling us that archaeologists found that there were high levels of Ethylene and sulfuric gases on the mountain, especially near the temple, and the oracle was probably just high off of these fumes. Even still, it was cool to see the temple, with it's classic grey stone, set dramatically against the mountain side under a bright blue sky.
We also saw an ancient amphitheater and stadium. The scenery on Mount Parnassos was beautiful and my friends and I spent many hours just wandering among the ruins.
On our way back into town we encountered a litter of kittens which you probably saw in the photos below. There are many stay cats and dogs in Greece. However, the government actually pays for the protection of these animals. There are programs that provide food and water for the strays, neutering, spaying, vaccinations and medicine. This the way they ensure that though there are stray animals, they are not starving, or sickly, or apt to spread disease or mate. I really think that this method of handling the strays is a good one. They certainly don't beg for food. In fact, I offered food to several cats and dogs and was rejected every time.
Later that evening, our whole group wandered into town and branched off. There really is no nightlife in Delphi(no bars, clubs etc) but that was fine by me. My friends and I decided to walk down by the seaside and explore the town.
We came upon a long staircase, about 200 stairs leading up to another street, and I remembered that our tour guide told us something about these stairs, so I suggested that we walk up them.
At the top (about 10 minutes later) there was a little church, cute, but not that exciting, and a little restaurant. My friend Devin suggested we check out the restaurant, to see if maybe we could sit down and have some wine. So we went in and who should be eating there but our tour guide, the trip co-ordinator, the two professors who were leading the trip, and the two Student Life Assistants and they are having dinner at this restaurant. They'd all obviously been drinking and thus were very excited to see us. Our tour guide who spoke Greek and knew the restaurant owner well from previous travels told us all to come in and sit down, and next thing you know we were being served wine, on the house, and a greek liquor which is served hot, and is very strong.
Then the owner came out and started schmoozing with us. He asked if we were hungry, and he wanted us to try this special fried cheese they serve "on the house" of course. We all wanted some, so he went to cook it for us. It turned out they were all out, so he sent another cook into the next town to get some more. 30 min and a lot of wine later, the cook returned with the cheese, they cooked it up, and it was one of the most delicious things my mouth had ever tasted, combined with fabulous wine, might I add. By this time everyone was getting kinda rowdy and tables merged into one, including a table of random Greek men who were also eating there. Then the owner came out and said "I have an idea! LET'S DANCE!" He told us all to get up, and he shoved the tables out of the way, and then out of nowhere this loud Greek music began to play, and all the kitchen workers came out to join the dancing. They taught us many greek dances, there more free alcohol, lots of ridiculous dancing, and lots of hilariously drunken authority figures...next thing you know, its 3 am and one of my professors is putting me and two of my friends in a Mercedes Benz CLK that belonged to the man who coordinated our trip in Greece. His name was Constantine (Constantine does not drink).
This night easily makes the list of the top ten experiences of my life. Good friends, good food and good wine, coupled with the incredibly generous hospitality of the restaurant owner and the other Greek people, made for an amazing evening. The next day when my group assembled, my friends and I had to keep asking ourselves if it really happened. Oh, it did.
This night also helped me get to know our tour guide and one of my professors, who had been friends for many years, since they studied together at Oxford. They are two of the most intelligent and interesting people I have ever met.
Delphi will always be magical for me.

Greece Photos: Athens

For my fall break I spent nine days in Greece. I traveled with a large group of Loyola students, two professors, and two Student Life Assistants- recent college grads who spent a semester or a year in Rome while they were still undergraduates. The first place we went was Athens. The scenes in these photos are from the Acropolis, where we ran into Bill Clinton and I took that horrible close up. For his sake I wish I could say he looked better in person, but I would be lying...the years since his presidency have definitely aged him. I missed the group photo but I still got the close up. We also saw the temple of Posiedon at sunset, from which the beautiful views of the Sea and sailboats, etc, come. We went to the National Museum of Archeology and saw many famous statues such as Eros and the well built old man throwing what was probably a spear or a trident, depending on whether he was Posiedon or Zeus (historians are not sure as his weapon was lost). We spent two nights in Athens, during which I had my first real Gyros, which was unspeakably delicious. We also had a five course meal at a lovely seaside restaurant. Greek food is amazing. I don't know what we're cooking in America, but its certainly not traditional Greek food. I'm talking about Tatsiki sauce, baklava, salads overflowing with the freshest, reddest tomatoes, cucumbers, olives and feta cheese, lamb, pork, and spinach pie appetizers, and tons of wine just to name a few highlights. While on this trip, we had at least one multi-course meal a day. The Greeks know how to eat. Nightlife in Athens was cool, lots of people out until all hours of the morning, lots of bars, lots of dance clubs. Unfortunately there was not much of a wow-factor in Athens for me. I spend too much time in cities to really get anything out a situation involving lots of people and traffic.




































Temple of Posiedon