Spring break: ten days, four cities, three different currencies.
I’m not sure how I even begin to provide an accurate account of the most
amazing week of my life, but I’ll certainly try. Our first adventure
was the beautiful country of Greece. This has been at the top of my list
for a while now, and finally being there only confirmed what I had
already suspected: Greece is my favorite place in the entire world. The
land (and sea) scape is breathtakingly beautiful… I couldn’t look away.
I’m already counting down the days until I can go back.
We landed into Athens late Friday morning, and managed to just barely miss the metro, meaning we would have to wait half an hour for the next one. However, the weather was so pleasantly warm that we didn’t mind at all. Once we finally arrived into the city center, we checked into our hostel. The streets of Athens are narrow, lined with colorful orange trees that cover the bland white façades of the old buildings. The balcony in our hostel room was the perfect height to reach down and pick a fresh citrus for breakfast. Around the corner, we found a delicious souvlaki place for lunch. Souvlaki is one of my new favorite meals, rivaling even the best paella from Barcelona. The pita is fluffy, the meat is fresh and the greek yogurt sauce is creamy.
After our yogurt filled meal, we did what any logical people would do… go for a run. We went straight to the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the only all white marble stadium in the world. It was built for the first modern Olympics in 1896, and boasts an awesome Olympic Torch Museum within its stands. Robby, Caity, Sarah and I managed to run a lap and it actually made me miss high school track a little bit (“little bit” being the key phrase there). The top of the stadium provides a perfect view of the Acropolis, so we decided to relax in the warm Greek sun and gaze over one of the most significant monuments of human and architectural history.
Two hours in and I was already in love. Next we wandered through the Olympic Torch Museum, which made me really excited for the upcoming Games this summer. I remember watching the last Summer Olympics before heading off to my first year of architecture school, thinking I’d be so old the next time they came around. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I would have visited Greece by the next set of summer Games. And now, here I am, exploring Athens, and about to enter my last year of school. Time flies, man.
We stopped for a refreshing cup of Greek yogurt (Caity’s obsession), which came with delicious honey and walnuts. We were all pretty sad about having to leave gelato for 10 full days, but this yogurt was amazing. I wish I had some more right now.
Our next stop was the Acropolis Museum, in preparation for our visit to the Acropolis the next morning. The museum itself was very well designed, and we stayed inside forever. Many pieces from the Acropolis are actually in the museum as opposed to the site, in order to preserve them. Even the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion stood trapped within the museum’s concrete walls. After a few months of living in Rome, where literally everything is preserved in site, we were a little uncomfortable.
We found out that the Greek preservation community is slowly dissembling the Parthenon piece by piece, only to display the fragments in a museum, while constructing a completely false Parthenon on the hill. Upon learning this, we were both dismayed and disgusted. Future generations won’t get to see the Acropolis as it existed in site. How lucky are we that we got here just in time??
Despite our differences of conservation opinions, we continued on through the museum to the top floor, which provided stunning views of the Parthenon and the city of Athens as a whole. Athens is beautiful with its landscape of low-rise white buildings, rolling across the gentle hills before collapsing into the Aegean Sea. The top floor of the museum is also laid out just like the real Parthenon: same size and proportion, with columns in the exact same spots. That made us architecture nerds pretty excited.
For dinner we found a local restaurant that served traditional Greek dishes and beer. I ordered Mousaka, which is a combination of ground meat, eggplant, potato and cream cheese. I’m not sure which was better: this or the one bite of Sarah’s lamb that I stole. Our very friendly waitress scolded us for studying architecture in Rome instead of Greece, and insisted that we move to Athens instead. She also felt bad that we didn’t have any true Greek food in Fayetteville, and offered to start up a restaurant there if we paid for her plane ticket. After a quick (and free) drink at our hostel’s bar, we went to bed, excited for the next morning at THE Acropolis.
We woke up with eager excitement and power-walked straight to the Acropolis. We ascended the hill (admittedly a little sore from our run the day before), but were calm enough to stop and enjoy the lookout points along the way. One problem with historic monuments is sometimes the authorities don’t want you to hug them. We reached the top of the portico, and I reached over to hug one of the most important columns in the whole world, only to be yelled at for blatantly disregarding the “DO NOT TOUCH THE MARBLE” sign (refer to my expression of apology below).
When we finally got THERE, we all just kind of went silent. It was everything I had hoped it would be: massive, perfect, shining… covered in scaffolding (okay so not EVERYTHING I had hoped, but close enough). I could hear my Roman friends screaming with terror at what was happening behind the scaffolds. We knew what they were doing to the Parthenon, so we just decided to enjoy what was left of the original structure as best we could. The views were amazing and the rubble was old. At this point we all split off to enjoy our personal time with the Acropolis. Many of my friends sketched like the good architecture students they are, but I preferred to sit and take in all my surroundings and just… be. I found a nice rock shaped like a chair, where I sat and stared at the Parthenon for hours. It was perfect.
Once we were able to drag ourselves away, we descended into the Ancient Agora… which was also primarily fake. However, the Temple of Hephaestus was more or less in tact as it originally stood, and by this point I was so frustrated that I hadn’t actually hugged a Greek column that I hopped the rope to the Temple of Hephaestus and hugged one of its magnificent fluted columns (the joy of which can be seen in the cover photo for this blog post). It was one of the best columns I have ever hugged. I have no regrets.
Upon leaving the Agora, we stumbled upon a craft fair, where we all bought little jewelry with olive leaves on them to remind us of our time in Greece. Next we went to the open-air theaters at the foot of the Acropolis, where we were able to do some hiking around. We decided on souvlaki for lunch again because it was so good the first day. We didn’t have much time before we had to make our way to the airport, so we paid a quick visit to the Temple of Zeus. The state of ruin in Athens is beautiful, and I could really feel the age of the city while standing next to Zeus.
After finding out that the metro had stopped working (and panicking because we seem to have such bad luck in getting to the airport on time), we hailed a cab. Our driver was very friendly, and eager to show us as much of Athens as possible. Occasionally he would pull over and point out areas that we need to visit on our next trip. This really made me miss my job as a Razorback Ambassador. It’s been so long since I’ve given a campus tour!
After getting my toothpaste confiscated at the airport (?), we were officially in route to Santorini, a stunning island in the Cyclades region of Greece. This was the portion of our spring break trip that I was most excited for. We landed at the one-room airport after dark, and found our hotel pick up who brought us straight to Oia (pronounced EE-ah),which is the town on the North side of the island. The island was dark and quiet, and I could hardly wait for the next morning when I could see the beautiful white buildings dance across the cliffs. Our hotel room was essentially a cave, with a private balcony facing the sea (we couldn’t see it that night, we could only hear the waves). We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit the next morning (this is a vacation, after all), but when we finally woke up it felt like Christmas morning. Maggie and I ran outside to be greeted by the Aegean and its breathtaking assortment of surrounding islands. The sun was bright, the air was warm and the caves were white. It smelled like Destin but it looked like another world. What more could a girl ask for?
We ventured out to find breakfast, but all we could find were more stunning views of the sea. Near our hotel, we found the ruins of a medieval castle overlooking the Aegean and Oia. At risk of sounding like a broken record, it was amazing, breathtaking, beautiful and every other synonym for “good.” Later, we finally stumbled upon a small bakery. We didn’t have much of a plan for Santorini, but we knew we wanted to hike down to the shore. We made our way down the edge of the cliff to Ammoudi Bay, a popular swimming area.
The great thing about it being tourist off-season is that we had the bay almost entirely to ourselves. We hiked along the rocks until we found a hidden area with the perfect view of Oia. I took my shoes off and sat on the ledge, letting the Aegean baptize me with its clear waters. It was invigorating. By this point we were addicted to the sun and the sea, and we stayed on our sunny rock for hours. It is quite literally all we did that day. Our only regret was not wearing sunscreen… I’m still burnt 8 days later. But really, I’ve never been so happy to have a sunburn.
We ascended the cliff only to find food (which we really wish we had, picnic style, down on our rock). For an early dinner, we found a restaurant looking out over the cliffs… which isn’t that hard to find in Santorini. I ordered a local wine and mussel saganaki, adding to my list of delicious Greek dishes. After dinner we rushed to the local market to pick up wine and chocolate before returning to our balcony for the ever-famous Santorini sunset. The view was unbeatable. The colors were so bright. The wine was so good. I thought to myself about how I was on my PRIVATE BALCONY in GREECE with my best friends watching the sunset over the Aegean. I’ve never been more grateful for any experience in my entire life. Later, a cat showed up at our party, begging for our cheese. He returned several times throughout the night, so we adopted him and named him Adonis after the god of beautiful youth. Adonis stayed with us until we went to sleep that night, which made Caity the cat lover very happy.
We woke up the next morning just in time to run by the bakery and make it to the bus stop for our trip to Fira in the middle of the island. Our plan for the day was to ride donkeys (like we’ve seen in all the movies) and hike back to Oia. Upon arriving in Fira, we descended the cliff via cable car (also useful for studio project research purposes) and explored the port. The water was clear as ever, and Greek flags waved with pride over the ships. We found a man offering donkey rides, and so our climb began. Maggie had the baby donkey, Robby had the stupid donkey (which had to be tied to the leader donkey), and Ashley had the donkey that pooped everywhere. It was such a fun experience, and I think we laughed the entire time. Were we stereotypical tourists? Yes. Did we care? No.
After another quick souvlaki lunch, we began our 9 km (5-6 mi) hike back to Oia. This is a pretty common activity in Santorini, but we were one of the only groups out on the trail. The route weaves in and out of the little cliffside towns before leaving you out on the ridge of the mountains with a perfect view of the volcanic crater that Santorini is formed by. We made a short detour onto a rock formation beyond a row of resorts being constructed on the cliffs. Climbing back up, we got stuck in a bit of donkey traffic, which is a pretty common thing in Santorini. Once we made it out onto the dirt trail, it felt like we had the whole island to ourselves. The wind and steep elevation made our hike a tad more difficult than the ones we’re used to in Northwest Arkansas, but it was 3 hours of pure, sunburnt bliss.
When we finally made it to Oia, we realized that we were covered in dust/ dirt/ sand/ not really sure what else. That didn’t stop us from having dinner at a local tapas bar, where we sat outside to get covered in more dust/ dirt/ sand. I finally got the greek meatballs that I had wanted to try this whole trip, and they lived up to every expectation. We had to (literally) run to the market to grab another bottle of wine and selection of cheeses for the evening’s sunset, which we barely made it back to our balcony for. It was another beautiful evening of good friends and beautiful scenery… our friend Adonis even came by again! This time followed by two dogs that snuggled up in my blanket to watch the sunset and tried to steal our salami. As the stars came out, we receded into our cave to pack for our flight the next morning, haunted by the sadness of realizing we actually had to leave this amazing place. I didn’t want to leave… ever.
Greece was a trip full of extremes. I have never seen water so blue. I have never seen a sky so colorful. I have never seen more stars in the sky. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. It’s even a bit frustrating to try and write a blog about it, because I can’t really put my experience in Greece into words. Until this point, I’ve always thought it would be nice to return to the cities I’ve visited. But after seeing Greece, I know I absolutely have to return. I want to experience all that Greece has to offer, both the archaeological wonders on the mainland and the picturesque scenes of the islands. As far as I’m concerned, the Aegean is my new home, and I can’t wait to come back to its beautiful waters some day.
Number of Columns Hugged: 1 :(
Days Since Mexican Food: 79 (but distracted by tasty Greek food)
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Read more from Haley at https://haleywalton.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Rome Center semester program for Architecture, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecentersemester/
We landed into Athens late Friday morning, and managed to just barely miss the metro, meaning we would have to wait half an hour for the next one. However, the weather was so pleasantly warm that we didn’t mind at all. Once we finally arrived into the city center, we checked into our hostel. The streets of Athens are narrow, lined with colorful orange trees that cover the bland white façades of the old buildings. The balcony in our hostel room was the perfect height to reach down and pick a fresh citrus for breakfast. Around the corner, we found a delicious souvlaki place for lunch. Souvlaki is one of my new favorite meals, rivaling even the best paella from Barcelona. The pita is fluffy, the meat is fresh and the greek yogurt sauce is creamy.
After our yogurt filled meal, we did what any logical people would do… go for a run. We went straight to the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the only all white marble stadium in the world. It was built for the first modern Olympics in 1896, and boasts an awesome Olympic Torch Museum within its stands. Robby, Caity, Sarah and I managed to run a lap and it actually made me miss high school track a little bit (“little bit” being the key phrase there). The top of the stadium provides a perfect view of the Acropolis, so we decided to relax in the warm Greek sun and gaze over one of the most significant monuments of human and architectural history.
Two hours in and I was already in love. Next we wandered through the Olympic Torch Museum, which made me really excited for the upcoming Games this summer. I remember watching the last Summer Olympics before heading off to my first year of architecture school, thinking I’d be so old the next time they came around. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I would have visited Greece by the next set of summer Games. And now, here I am, exploring Athens, and about to enter my last year of school. Time flies, man.
We stopped for a refreshing cup of Greek yogurt (Caity’s obsession), which came with delicious honey and walnuts. We were all pretty sad about having to leave gelato for 10 full days, but this yogurt was amazing. I wish I had some more right now.
Our next stop was the Acropolis Museum, in preparation for our visit to the Acropolis the next morning. The museum itself was very well designed, and we stayed inside forever. Many pieces from the Acropolis are actually in the museum as opposed to the site, in order to preserve them. Even the original Caryatids from the Erechtheion stood trapped within the museum’s concrete walls. After a few months of living in Rome, where literally everything is preserved in site, we were a little uncomfortable.
We found out that the Greek preservation community is slowly dissembling the Parthenon piece by piece, only to display the fragments in a museum, while constructing a completely false Parthenon on the hill. Upon learning this, we were both dismayed and disgusted. Future generations won’t get to see the Acropolis as it existed in site. How lucky are we that we got here just in time??
Despite our differences of conservation opinions, we continued on through the museum to the top floor, which provided stunning views of the Parthenon and the city of Athens as a whole. Athens is beautiful with its landscape of low-rise white buildings, rolling across the gentle hills before collapsing into the Aegean Sea. The top floor of the museum is also laid out just like the real Parthenon: same size and proportion, with columns in the exact same spots. That made us architecture nerds pretty excited.
For dinner we found a local restaurant that served traditional Greek dishes and beer. I ordered Mousaka, which is a combination of ground meat, eggplant, potato and cream cheese. I’m not sure which was better: this or the one bite of Sarah’s lamb that I stole. Our very friendly waitress scolded us for studying architecture in Rome instead of Greece, and insisted that we move to Athens instead. She also felt bad that we didn’t have any true Greek food in Fayetteville, and offered to start up a restaurant there if we paid for her plane ticket. After a quick (and free) drink at our hostel’s bar, we went to bed, excited for the next morning at THE Acropolis.
We woke up with eager excitement and power-walked straight to the Acropolis. We ascended the hill (admittedly a little sore from our run the day before), but were calm enough to stop and enjoy the lookout points along the way. One problem with historic monuments is sometimes the authorities don’t want you to hug them. We reached the top of the portico, and I reached over to hug one of the most important columns in the whole world, only to be yelled at for blatantly disregarding the “DO NOT TOUCH THE MARBLE” sign (refer to my expression of apology below).
When we finally got THERE, we all just kind of went silent. It was everything I had hoped it would be: massive, perfect, shining… covered in scaffolding (okay so not EVERYTHING I had hoped, but close enough). I could hear my Roman friends screaming with terror at what was happening behind the scaffolds. We knew what they were doing to the Parthenon, so we just decided to enjoy what was left of the original structure as best we could. The views were amazing and the rubble was old. At this point we all split off to enjoy our personal time with the Acropolis. Many of my friends sketched like the good architecture students they are, but I preferred to sit and take in all my surroundings and just… be. I found a nice rock shaped like a chair, where I sat and stared at the Parthenon for hours. It was perfect.
Once we were able to drag ourselves away, we descended into the Ancient Agora… which was also primarily fake. However, the Temple of Hephaestus was more or less in tact as it originally stood, and by this point I was so frustrated that I hadn’t actually hugged a Greek column that I hopped the rope to the Temple of Hephaestus and hugged one of its magnificent fluted columns (the joy of which can be seen in the cover photo for this blog post). It was one of the best columns I have ever hugged. I have no regrets.
Upon leaving the Agora, we stumbled upon a craft fair, where we all bought little jewelry with olive leaves on them to remind us of our time in Greece. Next we went to the open-air theaters at the foot of the Acropolis, where we were able to do some hiking around. We decided on souvlaki for lunch again because it was so good the first day. We didn’t have much time before we had to make our way to the airport, so we paid a quick visit to the Temple of Zeus. The state of ruin in Athens is beautiful, and I could really feel the age of the city while standing next to Zeus.
After finding out that the metro had stopped working (and panicking because we seem to have such bad luck in getting to the airport on time), we hailed a cab. Our driver was very friendly, and eager to show us as much of Athens as possible. Occasionally he would pull over and point out areas that we need to visit on our next trip. This really made me miss my job as a Razorback Ambassador. It’s been so long since I’ve given a campus tour!
After getting my toothpaste confiscated at the airport (?), we were officially in route to Santorini, a stunning island in the Cyclades region of Greece. This was the portion of our spring break trip that I was most excited for. We landed at the one-room airport after dark, and found our hotel pick up who brought us straight to Oia (pronounced EE-ah),which is the town on the North side of the island. The island was dark and quiet, and I could hardly wait for the next morning when I could see the beautiful white buildings dance across the cliffs. Our hotel room was essentially a cave, with a private balcony facing the sea (we couldn’t see it that night, we could only hear the waves). We allowed ourselves to sleep in a bit the next morning (this is a vacation, after all), but when we finally woke up it felt like Christmas morning. Maggie and I ran outside to be greeted by the Aegean and its breathtaking assortment of surrounding islands. The sun was bright, the air was warm and the caves were white. It smelled like Destin but it looked like another world. What more could a girl ask for?
We ventured out to find breakfast, but all we could find were more stunning views of the sea. Near our hotel, we found the ruins of a medieval castle overlooking the Aegean and Oia. At risk of sounding like a broken record, it was amazing, breathtaking, beautiful and every other synonym for “good.” Later, we finally stumbled upon a small bakery. We didn’t have much of a plan for Santorini, but we knew we wanted to hike down to the shore. We made our way down the edge of the cliff to Ammoudi Bay, a popular swimming area.
The great thing about it being tourist off-season is that we had the bay almost entirely to ourselves. We hiked along the rocks until we found a hidden area with the perfect view of Oia. I took my shoes off and sat on the ledge, letting the Aegean baptize me with its clear waters. It was invigorating. By this point we were addicted to the sun and the sea, and we stayed on our sunny rock for hours. It is quite literally all we did that day. Our only regret was not wearing sunscreen… I’m still burnt 8 days later. But really, I’ve never been so happy to have a sunburn.
We ascended the cliff only to find food (which we really wish we had, picnic style, down on our rock). For an early dinner, we found a restaurant looking out over the cliffs… which isn’t that hard to find in Santorini. I ordered a local wine and mussel saganaki, adding to my list of delicious Greek dishes. After dinner we rushed to the local market to pick up wine and chocolate before returning to our balcony for the ever-famous Santorini sunset. The view was unbeatable. The colors were so bright. The wine was so good. I thought to myself about how I was on my PRIVATE BALCONY in GREECE with my best friends watching the sunset over the Aegean. I’ve never been more grateful for any experience in my entire life. Later, a cat showed up at our party, begging for our cheese. He returned several times throughout the night, so we adopted him and named him Adonis after the god of beautiful youth. Adonis stayed with us until we went to sleep that night, which made Caity the cat lover very happy.
We woke up the next morning just in time to run by the bakery and make it to the bus stop for our trip to Fira in the middle of the island. Our plan for the day was to ride donkeys (like we’ve seen in all the movies) and hike back to Oia. Upon arriving in Fira, we descended the cliff via cable car (also useful for studio project research purposes) and explored the port. The water was clear as ever, and Greek flags waved with pride over the ships. We found a man offering donkey rides, and so our climb began. Maggie had the baby donkey, Robby had the stupid donkey (which had to be tied to the leader donkey), and Ashley had the donkey that pooped everywhere. It was such a fun experience, and I think we laughed the entire time. Were we stereotypical tourists? Yes. Did we care? No.
After another quick souvlaki lunch, we began our 9 km (5-6 mi) hike back to Oia. This is a pretty common activity in Santorini, but we were one of the only groups out on the trail. The route weaves in and out of the little cliffside towns before leaving you out on the ridge of the mountains with a perfect view of the volcanic crater that Santorini is formed by. We made a short detour onto a rock formation beyond a row of resorts being constructed on the cliffs. Climbing back up, we got stuck in a bit of donkey traffic, which is a pretty common thing in Santorini. Once we made it out onto the dirt trail, it felt like we had the whole island to ourselves. The wind and steep elevation made our hike a tad more difficult than the ones we’re used to in Northwest Arkansas, but it was 3 hours of pure, sunburnt bliss.
When we finally made it to Oia, we realized that we were covered in dust/ dirt/ sand/ not really sure what else. That didn’t stop us from having dinner at a local tapas bar, where we sat outside to get covered in more dust/ dirt/ sand. I finally got the greek meatballs that I had wanted to try this whole trip, and they lived up to every expectation. We had to (literally) run to the market to grab another bottle of wine and selection of cheeses for the evening’s sunset, which we barely made it back to our balcony for. It was another beautiful evening of good friends and beautiful scenery… our friend Adonis even came by again! This time followed by two dogs that snuggled up in my blanket to watch the sunset and tried to steal our salami. As the stars came out, we receded into our cave to pack for our flight the next morning, haunted by the sadness of realizing we actually had to leave this amazing place. I didn’t want to leave… ever.
Greece was a trip full of extremes. I have never seen water so blue. I have never seen a sky so colorful. I have never seen more stars in the sky. I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. It’s even a bit frustrating to try and write a blog about it, because I can’t really put my experience in Greece into words. Until this point, I’ve always thought it would be nice to return to the cities I’ve visited. But after seeing Greece, I know I absolutely have to return. I want to experience all that Greece has to offer, both the archaeological wonders on the mainland and the picturesque scenes of the islands. As far as I’m concerned, the Aegean is my new home, and I can’t wait to come back to its beautiful waters some day.
Number of Columns Hugged: 1 :(
Days Since Mexican Food: 79 (but distracted by tasty Greek food)
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Read more from Haley at https://haleywalton.wordpress.com/
To find out more about the U of A Rome Center semester program for Architecture, visit http://studyabroad.uark.edu/romecentersemester/
