Thursday, April 19, 2012

Spring Break 2012 Part 1!

It's already the end of the week after Spring Break, and time is actually flying by at this point.  I received very exciting news when I arrived home after break--my aunt Karry is coming to Athens for my last week!! I am so stoked to show her around my temporary home and take her to all of the sites, because I also think it will be a great way for me to say goodbye.

I have started listening to Greek radio on my computer, and I am officially obsessed!  I also think it's good way to practice my Greek because whenever there's a song I love that I want to find again, I have to listen very, very closely to the lyrics in home of salvaging a line or two to feed into Google.  Also, the commercials are hilarious!

I suppose you're wondering about Spring Break! So far it seems that everyone from CYA survived their respective travels, but dang we were sure spread all over Europe! Surprisingly enough, many students spent at least a few days on Santorini, I guess that is on pretty much everyone's list.  It didn't disappoint!  But I supposed for my own sanity I should write about my adventures chronologically, so I will start with Crete!!

Thursday night, April 5th, a group of us departed for the CYA-led optional trip to the island of Crete.  I am so glad that I chose to sign up (a HUGE thanks to the Willamette Classics Department and Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology because without their help I never would have been able to sign up and pay for the trip back in November).  We took an overnight ferry, which was more like a cruise-ship, on the right is a picture of me and one of my roommates, Morgan, in our room on the boat!

We arrived on the island at 6:30am Friday morning, and after a very fancy breakfast on-board (great coffee) we met up with our hosts, Ann and her husband.  Dr.Brysbaert is a CYA professor who is currently on leave, working on super cool research for the year.  They were so great, and I especially liked her husband because as a Finn, he looked SO much of my Grandpa and his brothers!

Ann was great about balancing the sites with fun breaks, so over the course of the weekend we saw Gortyna, Rethymno, Gournia, and Knossos, as well as different historical aspects of Heraklion and Chania.  Our hotel was in Heraklion and it was so lovely!  We were right around the corner from a plaza with tons of shops and food, as well as a street market, so we had lots of fun.  There were also many different places to get Bougatsa and Loukoumades, which are two delicious Greek desserts! Saturday afternoon after being on-site we drove to a beach, Matala, for lunch time and a wonderful two hours lounging in the sand and eating lunch!  Many kids also jumped in the water for a swim, but I couldn't get in past my ankles.  The weather was glorious the whole weekend, and we all got a lot of sun! Saturday night we went out for a Cretan taverna dinner and it was so great.  We ate tons of Greek food that we recognized, as well as a few special dishes.

It was so wonderful to have such a knowledgeable professor leading our trip, and it was the perfect recipe of loads of sunshine, great food, and amazing sites.  I can't wait to go back!

Here are some more pictures of Crete!

 the market in Heraklion
 A beautiful view from Rethymno!
This is what we saw our first morning at Malia, one of the four palaces of the Minoan civilization, it was incredible how much of the foundations were actually still standing!
Knossos!!

2 comments:

  1. You are such a good photographer; all of these are so pretty. It sounds like you are having a blast ... and now I want gelato.

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  2. Thanks! It has been a blast, and the gelato has definitely been a highlight of wherever I go haha.

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