Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Week in Review



I haven't updated in awhile due to difficulty accessing the internet... but here's a short version of what I've been up to.

A week ago Saturday I went to a wine tasting at the ritzy "Hotel Grand Bertagne". A 5 Euro entrance fee got us a glass and samples from several Greek wine distributors. I certainly don't know the art of wine tasting, but I pretended by following the actions of Athenian wine connoisseurs. It goes something like swirl, smell, sip, swish, spit. I tried some great wine, but I couldn't tell you any names - the labels were in Greek (obviously).

Most of my week was spent just going through the new class routine. When I had some spare time, I did a little exploring. It is fun to arbitrarily pick a bus/trolley and just see where it takes me. Experimenting with the public transportation is a great way to get acquainted with a new city. The metro (subway) system in Athens is great, too - it was recently redone for the 2004 Olympics. In a city like Athens, renovating an underground subway system also requires an archaeological excavation. Archaeologists learned a lot more about ancient Greece in the process, and the metro stations are amazing - they double as museums of the artifacts that were found.

On Friday I went to the island of Halkida. I believe it is the largest Greek island. It's also the closest to the mainland - so close that a bridge connects the two, so we were able to took a bus the whole way. Guide books don't typically suggest spending a day there, but we found enough to do. Highlights included beautiful water, seafood on the boardwalk, a castle, and an Orthodox church whose priest let us in to look and take pictures.



We ate dinner at a "Taverna" and waited over an hour for our food. My patience serves me well here, but others were more frustrated. Customer service and punctuality aren't exactly high priorities in Greece, but I'm getting used to it.

I am going to attempt to upload a few pictures, finally!

9 comments:

Chris said...
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Chris said...
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Chris said...
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Ray said...

I hear Athen's is a very crowed city, very loud. Our niece Lara on Robyn's side followed her boyfriend from UND back to Greece and taught at the American School there for a year. How does it seem to you? Did you see any farms on your trip to the island?

Chris said...
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