The Climate Challenged, Caves, and Doggies

Aye aye aye, I've been very busy taking naps and eating food, so I haven't updated as much. We have arrived in Ioannina and are settling in nicely. Have I said this already? Anyways, we arrived at 4 in the morning on Sunday, and at the time it was something like 32 degrees outside. While this is, of course, quite chilly, during the days it's been around 60 or so...and most of you know that 60 is kind of the key temperature for Seattleites. Reach 60, and you've reached t-shirt weather. So all of us Amerikis are walking around in jeans and t-shirts, while the Greeks are wearing boots, down coats with fur hoods,and scarves. Needless to say, we are getting looks. I don't know if we are in the right, or they are. I get hot easily though.




Today we went to the Cave of Perama, which is just outside of town, and which you can see above. It was discovered during WWII when husband and wife shepherds were looking for shelter from the bombings of the city. The cave was then fully exploredby spelologists during the 50s. It's 2 million years old and has all sorts of stalactites and stalagmites. I was very pleased to be inside it because I felt like Bilbo wandering around, or maybe Gimli, Son of Gloin. It was really magical.

Another thing that is very magical is the number of doggies on campus around here. While some of them are pretty mangey looking strays, a lot of them are very cute strays, that manage to make everyone forget about their probable diseases with their cuteness. Tonight I met the cutest of all, this lil guy:



He was outside and would bound over to us with his floppy lil paws and whine because he has no parents or food. I love him very much, and hope to see him again. I also hope I don't get diseases from hugging him, but I simply couldn't resist. I'm like that priest who was great friends with all the lepers in Hawaii, guys.

American Roadblocks

Oops, I napped frmo 8pm to....nope, I don't know what time it is, but I have a suspicion it's like, 2 in the morning? 3? I don't know, but everyone else is asleep and I'm wide awake, so I'm just cruisin' the net, chuknow? Oh Godddd, I'm hungry too. I'd go out for a little snacky, but I don't know if I'd be killed on the streets of Athens and left to be feasted upon by the of stray dogs that hang out here. Seriously though, they just lay on the sidewalk and look dead.

In a similar fashion, I feel that we (my group) clog up the sidewalk in much the same way as these poor lil babies, though we're not laying in the gutters. I just get this feeling that wherever we go, we're in the way. Maybe it's the fact that there's six of us and we don't really know where we're going, but we are constantly being looked at, yelled at, or physically moved aside by angry Greeks. And while I would like to think I look a little more Euro than some, because I'm wearing skinny jeans and not a UW sweatshirt and flip-flops (booooo), we all stick out like sore thumbs and it's very strange. I think, too, that we beat the tourist season, because I feel like we're the only Americans in ALL of Athens. That's right....get us a trophy up in here.

Toilet Paper and Dream-catchers

Alright, something that will certainly take some time to get used to is the fact that in Greece, one does not flush toilet paper down the toilet. No folks, that stuff goes right into the garbage can placed conveniently near your feet. Of course, the whole paper-to-toilet action is something of a reflex, and accidentally put it in the toilet once. On the risk of flooding the whole hostel, I flushed anyways, and it was fine. It makes me wonder if even in really nice hotels etc. this is the way, or if they try to up their standards in more elite establishments. Either way, it was the same in the airport and a cafe we went to tonight.

So today we ventured out by means of the Metro, which is suprisingly easy to navigate, into the city center, called the plaka. We wandered around, the Acropolis in full view above us the whole time, and found a flea market. This place was huge, basically covering a really wide network of alleys, with all sorts of things for sale. One item I noticed above all others was the dream-catcher! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm under the impression that the dream-catcher is a North American Native Indian art...either way, I saw more beautiful dream-catchers here in Athens that I've ever seen in the U.S. I decided to not buy any of the cheap stuff from teh flea market and save my money for the rest of the trip, though goodness knows I may have to pick up a dream-catcher on the way out of here.

The Europe Smell, Flip Flops, and Purple Hair

Hello from Athens! I have arrived safe and sound with 5 fellow travelers, and we are now sharing a very tiny room in Hotel Zorbas (though we do get our own shower). We took showers and then walked around the square and surrounding streets a bit.

Something that is the same here as in all the cities in Spain I visited is the smell. I don't know what it is, but it's a smell that doesn't quite exist in the U.S...it's kind of gross but kind of cool, because it's like "Hey, I'm in Europe."

Before leaving, our group got to talk with some students who went on the program last year, along with a native Greek student. We discovered that people simply do not wear flip-flops in Greece. Being nervous already about fitting in, I have no intention of wearing flip-flops. Two girls though wore them out tonight as we wandered around, and they were stared at by literally every man we walked by. I didn't notice if women gawked as well, maybe seeing the toes is like seeing boobs? Who knows.

Europeans look different. Once we got into Germany for a layover, anyone would have said we were in Europe even if they didn't know. Here is what I noticed:
Glasses almost always square, with either cool-colored frames or none at all.
Sideburns are thinner.
Mens shoes are sporty-chic
Women really love that red-purple hair color. I saw it everywhere.

Leaving on a Jet-Plane

Tomorrow at 7:20 am, I will be on my way to Greece!



This is how it will go:
5 hour flight to Washington D.C.
3 hour layover
8 hour flight to Munich
4 hour layover
2.5 hour flight to Athens

These are my current fears:
I will throw up on the plane
I will throw up off of the plane
My baggage will not arrive in Athens
We will be unable to navigate the subway system to our hostel
We will be humiliated by our inability to speak Greek
The Greeks won't like my clothes

Wish me luck!