More Greece

Greece

It would have been almost too poetic to get stuck in London on our way back to the United States. Iceland sure gave us a run for our money, as its infamous volcano spewed threats of airport closures and teased us for the days of travel it had already stolen.

I jump ahead, let me rewind to the final week of my European adventures.

For almost 20 years Miami students have taken part in a sailing trip around Greece after their program ended, sometimes with as many as forty students. This year, I planned the trip and went with 10 other Miami kids and a high school friend who was studying in Liverpool. The sailing trip was through GreekSails, where we were able to charter three sail boats and travel each day through the sea to various islands and towns in Greece. Each morning we began sailing, led by our fearless skipper Graham, in a fleet of the three boats. During the day, we laid around the deck and viewed the pristine waters and took in the strong Mediterranean sun. In the afternoon we docked at various small harbor towns, took in the adorable colored houses and overcrowded docks, and did more damage to our bank accounts via shopping. At night we seized the moments of our last nights in Europe (including the drinking age) and made (or lost) memories galore.



We traveled for over 24 hours to get to Greece after a long bus ride from Athens to Poros, a nightmare with checking luggage and weight restrictions (let’s put it this way, we each wore layers upon layers of one another’s clothing to bring the weight down a few kilos) and a complete language barrier with the people picking us up. However, we eventually made it to the beautiful town of Poros where we would begin our trip.

We were divided into three boats, one for the boys and two for the girls. I was on a boat with four of my sorority sisters. We were surprised to see the small space we were to live in, but I don’t know what we expected! We had large backpacks (which I am happy to say I will never use again now that I’m home) and two small bunkrooms. We made it work though, and got to know each other on a whole other level!

The trip focused on the ?, and we visited a few of the cities along the main coast as well as the island of Hydra. Honestly, it was such an authentic trip. The towns we visited were unspoiled by tourists and the crystal clear water demonstrated the dedication to the beauty of the country, untouched by our human destruction. The Greek people were so friendly, ushering us into restaurants where they would pick the lemons right off the trees and “Mother” would be cooking in the back to give us a “real” Greek meal. They really do eat Greek salads for every meal. Often they would even give us free food or drinks to make us feel welcome to their home.



I think one of my favorite destinations was Hydra. It was more on the touristy side, but still seemed relatively untouched by the rest of the world. It was a smaller island and the town was full of shops (mostly jewelry, which may be a reason I liked it so much). There were no cars or anything, only donkeys, which were actually labeled with miniature license plates. We were able to climb up onto some rocks and cliff dive into the crystal clear water, a turquoise color that seemed painted onto the scenery, before enjoying cocktails and a fine seafood dinner overlooking the sunset. It was a pretty perfect vacation.

Other highlights included:
Seeing a professional gold digger (no older than 20) working her way onto a yacht full of 60 year olds
Seeing a school of dolphins swimming past our boats
Listening to our skippers stories about the pirates that still haunt the seas
Getting towed behind the back of our sailboat while our skipper dragged us along with buoys
Lindsey falling into the water off the back of the boat
Learning that sailing is really hard
Putting 75 SPF my face every half hour and still getting a little too pink
Trying to see inside the large yachts docked in the many ports
Seeing the 8 billion stray cats that are everywhere in Greece, be warned
Taking showers off the back of the boat with ice cold water
Eating really, really fresh calamari
Seeing and smelling the beautiful flowers that were everywhere, I probably took at least 200 pictures of just plants



Honestly it was the perfect end to a pretty perfect semester.

The last day we headed to Athens, where we actually drove past the bank that had been fire-bombed during the Greek riots over the economy. Besides that, however, we were relatively untouched by the discontent haunting the island-country. We were able to visit the Acropolis, which really is in the middle of the city on a huge plateau. We then headed outside of Athens and stayed in apartments before waking up early the next morning to catch our flights out.



I flew back with my sorority sister Cary who is also from Connecticut. She and I made our way to Europe together, and back in January (if you remember) got stuck in London due to snowstorms. Apparently, London has something against us for no sooner have we started our voyage that airports in Ireland, Scotland, and the UK started to close. These closures worked south, haunting London Heathrow, where we connecting to our flight to New York’s beloved JFK. We watched the news on our blackberries with worried eyes and couldn’t help but laugh at the inevitability of repeating our stressful trip to Europe on our way home. Luckily, all of our knocking on wood and crossed fingers paid off. We were one of the last flights out of London before the airport closed due to ash. And soon enough we were on our way back to the land of jumbo-sized coffees and cable television. Ah, home sweet home.

Beer Olympics

Prom

MUDEC Farewells

It’s our last week in the chateau (some people today is the last day!) and I have a sense of foreboding mixed with excitement, as our eagerness to see our families, friends, Starbucks, and car keys is thwarted by the nostalgia of how great our semester has been. I cannot believe how fast everything has gone. It was only yesterday that I was stuck in blizzarding London, and here I am in the sun of Differndage saying goodbye to my 129 new friends. How do you sum up everything from this experience in one blog entry?

I guess there’s just the things I am going to miss:
1. Drinking beer out of a boot.
2. Asking people where they are going for the weekend, and hearing things from Paris to Turkey to Ireland. And it being completely acceptable.
3. Going to high school. Aka, our chateau, complete with the lockers, a common room, and a lunch hour and cafeteria. Not to mention the amazing, small world group of friends.
4. Packing my stupid hiking backpack every weekend and attempting to see if it’ll fit in Ryanair storage bins.
5. Drinking our way to cities and sleeping our way home.
6. Going to places I am learning about in history class.
7. Skype. JOKE. Can’t wait to see everyone’s faces for real!
8. Those little old delinquents that we’ve grown so fond of on the playground.
9. Acting like the Euro is monopoly money. (And believing it)
10. Those amazing places I have been to.
11. The people. Honestly, I can’t believe how many amazing people I have met.
12. Going to school in a castle.
13. Pretending to be at Hogwarts. Every day.
14. Being about two months behind on the popular music scene.
15. Bofferding.
16. Getting a café et croissant in the morning.
17. The word Moien.
18. From ash clouds to Polish presidents, I really feel like I’ve been where the news is, and little, old Oxford won’t seem the same.
19. Taking 10,000 photos a week. And uploading them all to Facebook and CVS.
20. Being in EUROPE and getting to see it up close and personal

Honestly, this list could go on and on and on. I just can’t believe it’s ending. I know everyone’s been caught up in this whole idea of making it last and remembering every detail. But, it was the best time of my life, and I will always remember that.

Things that dominated our last week at MUDEC included the school-sponsored “prom.” A final gala, the evening included a cruise down a river before being bussed to a restaurant for awards and dinner and a grand finale of a dance floor and bar. The entire program decked ourselves out in our top-notch clothing, actually did our hair and make-up, and headed to our favorite park to enjoy a few glasses of wine and some prom-themed photos. The night was everything a prom should be… wayyyyy too much fun! I had such a blast with everyone and felt a tad nostalgic for the high school days of old as I relished in the company of the 120 or so students I have become incredibly close with and the teachers who know us all by name. We all danced our booties off, laughed at inside jokes, and relished in our last days of Europe.

Another highlight included a Saturday Fun Day of Beer Olympics. Students divided themselves into teams of four, picked a country, decked themselves out in costume, and got ready to compete in the ultimate challenges. Teams included Vatican City (myself, dressed as a nun), Somalia (dressed as pirates), Italy (mustaches and flags and jerseys) and the Confederacy (they were actually able to find Confederate flags with monster trucks on them.) Each team made up chants, our’s: Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, the power of Christ compels you! The Confederacy’s: I take my wife and hit her, in the South we’re still bitter. As you can imagine, not the most serious chants. Overall, everyone enjoyed the beautiful Luxembourg spring weather and our last sips of beloved Bofferding.

Finals dominated the last few days, as did packing. Neither overly exciting. Kate and I were upset on our last day to have a major falling out with our host mom. It was unfortunate to have such sour relations with someone we had lived with for so long, but it seemed that our differences were irreconcilable. I know that both of us were glad to quit her house and hope to never hear from her again. I do wish that my amazing experience in Luxembourg had been rounded out by a wonderful experience with a host family, but I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it to.

After packing and saying tearful goodbyes to our classmates, people made there way to all parts of the globe, from Germany to Chicago, France, Spain, China, Ohio, New York, and for me and 13 friends…. GREECE.

Barcelona

When I packed for Barcelona I was anticipating a nice three-day weekend away with the girls. It was going to be perfect, just a long weekend away and my first visit to Spain. I was actually even a little disappointed I would only be in Spain for three days, as though I was really depriving myself of the full Spanish experience.

Our flight times worked out that we would have three full days in the land of sun before getting home before noon on Sunday. I left at 2 AM Thursday morning (basically the middle of the night on Wednesday) and we arrived in Barcelona to a shining sun, a sketchy hospital, but high hopes for a great weekend. Then we got the message from Sarah, who was supposed to meet us later that day. Her flight (which was to leave only hours after ours) was cancelled due to something really weird. I don’t think we even understood what the cancellation was. Only later were we to learn that our lives would soon be ruled by Icelandic volcanic ash.

But we weren’t even going to start thinking about that until Friday night, so we still had a few days to become exposed to this Spanish city that would soon capture all of our hearts. Barcelona is such a vibrant city. Vibrant was the word that echoed in my head as I became acquainted with the small streets, the open markets, the beaches, and the hippie taste that permeates every aspect of the city. Even the colors just popped, from the glow of a bright orange sun to the fresh apples and bananas and pomegranates that bordered every store window to the golden sand to the Gaudi architecture. I was blown away by the free spirit of the people, as they just meandered through the town and you could tell time meant little. Even the idea of a siesta illustrates their lifestyle, and one that we would soon adopt. I ate fresh fruit, listened to live music, was drawn in by street performers, enjoyed sangria on the sandy beaches, and had the time of my life with seven beautiful women who I will always associate with my trip to Spain.


The first few days in Spain we decided it would be a good idea to indulge. Why not? It was one of our last weekends traveling and it was just us girls. So Friday night we partook in our self-proclaimed Booze Cruise. We signed up for an hour and half ride along the Barcelona coast, bought a few boxes (classy, right?) of sangria, got nice and dressed up and boarded our ferry. We were pleased to see we were not alone. We were amongst a 10th grade Spanish field trip to Barcelona. Hello, good times. We proceeded to indulge in our sangria and made great friends with the sixteen year olds, only one of whom spoke enough English to communicate. Apparently Kiyo’s and Taylor’s Spanish is very different than Catalan Spanish. And, apparently the drinking age in Spain is 18 not 16 so these kids should not have been allowed to drink our sangria. Overall, I don’t think I have laughed so hard in a long time. Amazing memories.

Then, to further our indulgence of a great weekend, we decided to take my friend’s advice and go on a bike tour of the city through Flat Tire Bike Tours. After a little bit of a rough time finding the meeting place, we took off on a great way to see Barcelon. They say riding a bike comes back to you really quickly. They (whoever they are) were right. I don’t think I’ve been on a bike in years, and it was so much fun. I think we all channeled our inner five-year-old selves and enjoyed biking up the hills and gliding down. Though, we did have to bike on busy car roads and through throngs of crowds. That was a little more of a challenge. However, through the tour we got to see all the sights of Barcelona! One of our favorites was the Parc de la Ciutadella and the Cascada Fountain, where we took a nice little photo shoot.
The tour included the Gaudi church, the Arc de Triomf, the pier, and the Olympic village. We also got to spend some time at the beach drinking sangria and enjoying the sunset. Also, during our tour we had a mishap when one family (who apparently had never learned to ride bikes) had the dad knock his daughter off. After a screaming fit from the 13 year old girl, the family decided to take her to the hospital. Later, our guides told us nothing was wrong with her except a “spoilt childhood.” After the tour our guides were kind enough to take us to the local bar, where we enjoyed an evening with the Barcelona locals. I know we’ll never forget Buddah or Pete, our gracious guides. So many laughs.

After a weekend of exciting things and beautiful weather, we heard that our flight on Sunday was cancelled. Thus began a frantic search for forms of transportation. Days later we had:

1. Called our dean, who suggested we get a bus to come get us for 400 euro a person. No thanks.
2. Had our flight rescheduled to Monday.
3. Had our Monday flight rescheduled to Wednesday.
4. Had our Wednesday flight rescheduled to never.
5. Attempted to get train tickets, that were sold out.
6. Told there were no rental cars in Barcelona left.
7. There were no rental cars in Spain that we could take over the border.
8. There were no flights anywhere.
9. Attempted to bribe other MUDEC students to come pick us up.
10. Decided to rent segways and ride them to Luxembourg.
11. Realized segways would die before they got to France.
12. Discussed going back to the bike tour place to see if they would drive us home.
13. Finally bought a 14 hour bus ride ticket to Paris.
14. Tried to buy train tickets from Paris to Luxembourg.
15. Some of us bought flights for Friday.
16. Found out our flight on Thursday was a go ahead.
17. Got home from Barcelona over a week after we had left.
18. Wouldn’t trade the experience for the world.


During this time of rapid search for ways of getting home, we decided to embrace our time in Barcelona. We enjoyed too much shopping on Las Ramblas, fresh fruit from the main market, too much sun bathing and sangria, a trip to the beautiful Park Guell (where we saw street vendors run from the cops), and a day trip to a small beach town called Stiges.

Overall, although we ended up being stuck in Barcelona and seeing our bank accounts rapidly decreasing and our teachers’ emails getting less sympathetic after a week of missing class, I have to say it was one of the funniest and best things that has happened to me. Hey, you’re only young once, and, hopefully, only stuck in Barcelona once.

Cracow

You can only imagine that after our visit to Auschwitz, it was a much-subdued trip to our second destination in Poland, Cracow. I never thought I would be in Poland. Honestly, it’s just not a country I thought much of visiting and I was a little confused when I got the Verizon text message, “Welcome to Poland. For roaming support, call yada yada yada.” However, soon we would embrace more about the Poles than we ever would have expected.

We arrived to Cracow shortly before seven, checked into our hotel, got dressed and sped off to a traditional Jewish dinner complete with live music. It was a pretty great meal, and comforting to be around friends and to see Jewish culture being appreciated after our visit before. The dinner went well and we all inhaled the delicious food in front of us before heading home for an early night to sleep. We had another long day on Saturday for a tour of traditional Cracow.

Cracow is the second largest city in Poland and probably the most popular for tourists. From early 7th century Wawel Hill and medieval castles to the center of the General Government for the Nazis to a site of communism, Cracow is a city of history. And, we were lucky to be able to spend two days seeing the history of the city and the unprecedented future.

We had a special tour guide for the city, who accompanied from site to site. The first stop was the old Gestapo prison and an exhibit about Cracow’s role in the war. The prison was interesting and sad, with some of the cells having writing on them in all languages, some of the inscriptions the last thing prisoners would ever say. However, while we there we got shocking news. On his way to honor the anniversary of the massacre of Poles in the Soviet Union, the president of Poland was killed in a plane accident, along with his wife and other top government officials. We were shocked to hear the news, but not as shocked as the people of Poland.

Obviously, it was weird being in the country of Poland while in underwent such a shocking part in its history. Poland is rarely front line news, but while we were there it was all over the major news stations. It was weird. We saw a country while it got the news and the reaction of the people.

At first we were surprised because it seemed like no one really cared. Our tour guide told us how he was not a very popular president, and was very conservative and not well liked amongst the young people. While we continued our tour of the city, we saw the sites of mourning for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s death (six years ealier) and there were flowers everywhere and people mourning. At the same time, there did not seem to be this type of mourning for the president who had died that day. However, as we toured churches, we saw more people in mourning, with large portraits of the president on display surrounded by flowers and candles. It was interesting to see the reaction of the general population and the conservative Catholic population.

Despite the depression set in by the death of the president, we attempted to continue our tour of the city. Cracow was beautiful, despite wet and cold weather. We saw it’s old university where there was an old globe that attempted to show where America was (it was south of Africa and only South America existed). We also saw the city square filled with horse drawn carriages and decorated cathedrals. The park around the Cracow circles the entire city and was beautiful as well. We were not, however, able to go into a lot places due to the national tragedy.

One of the more important places we saw was the site of the old Jewish ghetto, the Jewish ghetto used by the Nazi’s, and Oskar Schindler’s factory. The ghetto in Cracow was created to house all of the Jews from the city, where they were forced to move and then walled in. Part of the wall was still remaining, with the top of it resembling the tops of gravestones. In the Cracow ghetto, the Nazi’s divided those who were able to work from those who were unable. 15,000 Jews were forced to live in a place that would normally hold about 3,000. The Nazi’s eventually liquidated the ghetto, systematically sending the residents to death and concentration camps, many being sent to Auschwitz. Now, at the site there is one chair statue representing one thousand Jews deported. Also at this center square where the memorial is is the site of a pharmacy where a pharmacist did what he could do to save as many Jews as possible, helping provide medicine and aid to those who’s lives were in jeopardy. It was lightening to see the site of such a hero.

From the Cracow ghetto, we went to see where Oskar Schindler’s factory had been where he had saved Jews by putting them on a list to provide them work at a factory and save them from the death camp. We had watched Schindler’s List (highly recommended) on our way to Auschwitz, and it was fascinating and relieving to see that such a place was real. While in Cracow we also saw a lot of the places where the movie was filmed, again making it feel more real.

We also saw old synagogues in the old Jewish district, which the Nazis used as stables or dumping grounds. We viewed cemeteries where the Nazis had knocked down the gravestones and used them to pave roads. As I mentioned in my previous entry, it was shocking to see how in every way the Nazi’s attempted to destroy the Jewish people.

Overall, Cracow was a wonderful city, although surrounded by so many depressing events. The base course really allowed me to see the places we had been studying and apply what I had learned to reality, something really special to my education.