My First Greek Island!

Hola! Hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine was great - I went to Aegina, which is the island closest to Athens. My friend Jessica came with me and we ended up staying overnight so that we'd be able to go to the Temple of Aphaia in the morning. I'm really glad we stayed, it was definitely worth the 30 euro for a room (only 15 each, not bad!) I can only put up a few pics now because they're taking forever to upload, but hopefully I can put up some more later.

It took about an hour and a half by ferry

The seaside town is so picturesque!

The weather was beautiful, perfect for walking along the ocean.

Me posing in front of the Temple of Aphaia (once mistakenly thought to be a temple to Athena). The story goes that the nymph Apha fled to Aegina to escape King Minos' unwanted advances. She turned invisible so she could hide - hence 'Aphaia' , ancient Greek for invisible.

That's all for now! Hope you all enjoyed the pics.
Love,
Marilyn

...

Hola fam & friends. Don't have much to report on but decided to leave a small entry. It's warmed up quite a bit since Sunday, thank goodness, and it definitely doesn't look like we'll be getting any more freak snow storms. This weekend my friend Jess and I are planning on visiting the nearby island of Aegina. It's supposed to be beautiful, so I should have some cool pics to put up on Sunday. I'm kind of broke, especially after Nafplion last weekend (and, I'll admit, my visit to the bookstore today) but I don't want to just hang out in Athens this weekend, so screw it! You only live once, right?! (Meanwhile let's pray I do some babysitting soon...) The pic to the left, by the way, is from a taverna in Nafplion. We were eating and a group of bouzouki (Greek guitar) players came and sat down and started playing and singing. It was so nice - yummy authentic Greek food accompanied by Greek music. What could be better?!
xoxo
Mari
{P.S. You all say you read my blog, so please leave comments! It only takes a few seconds.... I would appreciate the love.}

The Argolid

First of all, I just have to let you all know that yesterday it SNOWED here in Athens, and today my classes were canceled. That's right, I go to school in Western Massachusetts where I have NEVER had a snow day, and now I get one in Greece. Go figure. It's supposed to be up around 60 by the end of the week, so hopefully this is something that won't happen again. Seriously, I did not come to the Mediterranean to freeze. Anyway, as some of you know, I had my first CYA trip this weekend. We went to the Argolid region and stayed in the beautiful old town of Nafplion. Friday my group went to Mycenae, which was incredible. Luckily we had good weather on Friday so I was really able to enjoy the ancient city with its massive stone walls and intensely beautiful mountain views. I took lots of pics but none of them do the place justice. Standing on top of the ruins looking out at the breathtaking view, I couldn't help but think that anyone living in such a place had no choice but to believe in gods. Our itinerary was changed around a bit because of the impending 'polar front', so on Saturday we did the other important sites in the area (Epidaurus, Tiryns, and the Palamidi) and left back to Athens on Sunday. It was so weird to drive back; everything looked a lot different covered in snow.

From the top of the Theater at Epidaurus

Cool view from Mycenae

The famous Lion's Gate (Mycenae)

Climbing down into creepy cistern (clearly my flash works well because it was actually really dark in there!)

That's all for now - internet's not working well.

PICTURES!

Everyone is complaining about me not posting enough pics, so since I'm at the academic center right now (you know, doing "homework"...) and I have a good internet connection, I'm going to upload some random pics. ENJOY! :)

Interesting view of the Plaka neighborhood

A small sample of the graffiti that is found all over the place in Athens

A parliament guard in his traditional uniform. You have got to see how these guys walk, it's hilarious! And yeah, those are pom-poms on their shoes...

This is the Temple of Hephaestus at the Agora

This is a cool view from the top of one of the many staircases on the streets of Athens. There is a yummy bakery down this one.

This pic is from a club called Envy from last Wednesday night (hip-hop night.) I'm with 3 of my fave CYA people: Nerissa, Gabriela, and Christiana.

Here's a cool pic of the inside of a church that I definitely was not supposed to take, LOL. Most of the Byzantine churches in Athens are still in use.

Well my connection here is going in and out and I need to homework anyway, so this is it for now!
xoxo
Marilyn

Mojitos & Museums

Hello everyone! I've been told by a certain aunt of mine that I don't write in my blog often enough, so I figured I'd at least do a brief entry today. The pic that you see at the left is from Thursday night at a bar with a few friends (that's the 10 euro mojito Titi!) It looks sort of brown in the pic but I think that's because of the reflection of my shirt through the glass; it was actually a perfect clear green-tinted color and was DELICIOUS. So as far as this weekend goes, I mostly just tried to be outside and enjoy the sunny weather. On Friday I went to the farmer's market that comes to my neighborhood once a week. It was so cool - I was tempted to take pics but didn't want to get more weird looks than I already do, lol. The market was great, tons of fruits and veggies everywhere for really low prices, and you can bargain. I bought apples, cucumbers, strawberries, and grapefruit. The strawberries are seriously the sweetest I've ever had. Friday afternoon my friends Jess and Sierra and I went to the Benaki Museum, which was SO cool. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras inside so I have no pics, but take my word for it - the museum was fantastic. Its collection ranges from the Neolithic period all the way to the 19th century. It's really great, you go from Cycladic figurines and Bronze Age vases to Byzantine coins and early Christian paintings all the way to preserved clothing from the 18th and 19th centuries. We actually plan on going back because the museum closed before we were finished.

Saturday I mostly just hung out with my friends, and took a trip to a supermarket I had heard about. I actually cooked dinner Saturday night, go me!! It was my first time making real food since I've been here. I decided it was time to lay off the cereal, LOL. Major good news, by the way (drumroll please) : I'm going to Rome for spring break!! My friends and I booked our airfare Saturday afternoon, and did hostel reservations as well. I'm SO excited - most of you guys know how obsessed I am with going to Italy. It seems like it's going to be a pretty inexpensive trip, the airfare and hostel are cheap so I'll mostly just have to bring money for food. I'm going to try to be really frugal with what I spend here up until then so that I can have some savings. Luckily I'm also going to be doing some babysitting so that should help as well.

Anyway, I'm at the library with the intention of getting some homework done so I better go. I definitely got here at 3 and it's already 4:30...
Ciao everyone!
Mari