Nafplio

This past weekend I went to this town on the coast named Nafplio.  It was my first trip outside of Athens.  It was beautiful and I cannot wait to travel more.  I was a little bummed as to how ugly a lot of Athens is so it was really refreshing to get out of the city and get some fresh air. Nafplio reminded me a lot of Italy, especaially the Cinque Terre.  It was the capital of Greece from 1829-1834 when it moved to Athens.  And there is your first little history lesson for the day. So we drove three hours, stopping at the Ismith of Corinth.  It is this huge divide that basically separates the Peloponnese (southern Greece) from the rest of Greece.  Mom, I thought you would like it because of all the rocks.  Here is a picture to give you an idea.  

We arrived in Nafplio and had a few hours to explore so I went on a walk along the coast with some of the kids in my program.  We went to the end of this dock and started talking with the old fisherman and all of the sudden he caught an octopus.  When I was holding the line the octopus started to squirm and dropped off the line and I screamed and came a few inches away from falling into the Mediterranean.  The picture of me with the little bugger is a few seconds before the incident.  

Here are a few more pictures from the walk.  
A view of Nafplio from the dock.  

This was my favorite part of the walk.  

One of the cool parts of Nafplio is this island fort called Bourtzi that used to protect the city.  It has been a jail, palace, and now it serves as a museum/cafe/really nice place to throw a party.  

Then that night my program treated us to a dinner at this Greek restaurant.  It was family style and they kept bringing out all of this delicious food.  It was a little weird because it was about seven courses but we never knew when it was going to end so we just kept eating.  Anyways, the decor was really cool so I obviously took a picture.  

The next day we climbed the 999 steps to the Palamidi fortress.  Supposidly they took out a step because they didn't want to have 1000 for some reason.  Anyways, we climbed it at 9:30am.  I didn't go out the night before because I was really tired and I brought work out clothes to run so I loved the hike but most people were slightly hungover and not wearing good shoes so they were less than thrilled.  Apparently my attire combined with my Jones calves and soccer butt just screamed athlete because a bunch of the adults in the program were asking if I played a sport.  Here are some pictures from the hike.  

Left to right it is Wells from Yale, Catie from DePaul, Demetra from U of Illinos, me and Ashley from U of I as well.  Demetra and Catie are fluent in Greek so it makes life a lot easier considering I am still learning to read Greek but that's another story.  They have family everywhere in Greece and they said that My Big Fat Greek Wedding is an embaressingly accurate portrayl of Greek Americans.  There aren't that many boys on the trip so it's not weird that Wells is the only boy.  He is really nice (he is from the south so he is quite a gentleman) and lives on the ground floor of our building.  

I thought this was a cool picture.

The water is SO PRETTY! 

Below is any artsy picture my other roommate Catie took that I think is pretty cool.  

This is the Greek Flag.
The Mediterranean. 
Nafplio from above.  The island fort is in the right of the picture.

Later that day I went for the longest run along the path on the coast.  It may have been my favorite/prettiest run I have ever gone on.  And I ran into a golden retreiver puppy.  It was basically heaven.  Later that day we had to do this scavenger hunt to learn about the city.  It was impossible so everyone just befrieneded locals and asked them for answers.  We befriened this Italian man that owns the most amazing gelato place.  He taught us about Nafplio while we ate gelato.  We talked about the Sopranos and he told us all about getting between Italy and Greece.  He even drew us a VERY detailed map.  My group is below.  Left to right it's Kevin but we call him Boston because he has the strongest Boston accent I have ever heard, Bradie from Texas, and Pete who plays football for Amherst.  

Then we met back up with the group at this coffee place and got treated to Greek coffee.  We were supposed to try and drink it like Greeks.  That means REALLY slowly.  It isn't filtered so I think it tastes like mud so that wasn't a hard tasks.  Greeks literally spend hours on one espresso.  We sat in this cafe from 4pm until 8pm just talking, relaxing, and watching all these Greek kids play around the square.  It was amazing.  All parents should take a lesson from the Greeks.  They sip coffee for hours while their kids run around and play.  Sheer brilliance if you ask me.  Here are pictures of me, Wells, Catie, Demetra, and Ashley sipping like Greeks.  

Then that night we continued the theme of acting like Greeks so we went to dinner from midnight until 2am.  I had some octopus which I really enjoyed.  Partly because it was tastly, but mainly because I felt like I got a little redemption for that sucker almost making me fall in the sea.  And then we stayed out until 6am!  I know, that is an hour after Mich (my coach) wakes up in the morning!  Needless so say I was exhausted so the next night I went to bed ten hours earlier and slept from 8pm until 10am.  That's 14 hours in case you were counting.  I'm going to the street market tomorrow morning with my roommate Amanda and then have to ride the subway for two hours to observe Greeks for a class.  And I have my Greek class with Taki at night.  So I'd better get to bed.  

I'll update more about classes and life back in Athens soon!