I slept through the night and it was amazing. Other than at four
am when the birds started going crazy and it sounded like someone was
trying to break in, but I fell asleep quickly after. We woke up and had
breakfast which was fruit, a pancake with Nutella, and baklava type
pastry.
We then had a short lecture about the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. What I found most interesting was that the Northern part of Greece is beer and butter, and the Southern part is olive oil and wine. We then met Maria at the market, which they refer to as agora. The market had typical Greek foods that were very cheap compared to how expensive they would be in the states. I bought olive oil and olives. Maria said that the bread lasts up to six months due to the fact that it is double baked. There were also a lot of souvenirs. There were a lot of pornographic key chains, coffee mugs and calendars. This is apparently very normal for Greece, due to their cultural history.
We then walked through all the streets where you can see ancient ruins of different empires that are all still being lived in and used which absolutely amazed me because of the state they were in. We then went down to the port which was absolutely breath taking. The workers at the restaurants would come up to you and try to get you to sit down in their restaurant, it was very weird and invasive. We walked around the lighthouse and I was amazed that none of it was walled off with ropes because it would be very easy to fall with how uneven the roads were with the stones.
Also what I noticed is that Greek people aren’t very time conscious, they don’t really have a schedule, and the old men just sit around chatting and eating all day. There were a lot of stray dogs but nobody would pet them, and actually ran away from them at times, which is very different from the U.S. We then got to wander around smaller streets individually and it was exactly how I picture a Greek community. We then made it back to campus and took a Zumba class. Greek Zumba is very different from American Zumba. Their Zumba was so intense and had no cool down period.
Apparently the locals were making fun of us because it was easy and they started their real class after we left. We then got to cool off and eat dinner. My favorite foods so far is the bread, tomatoes, goat cheese, olive oil, and couscous. We then got to go back into the city to see the night life. Some girls that go to the university from Tunisia went with us to show us where to go. We then made it back to campus after a very rude taxi driver got us home which is where I learned my first Greek cuss words.
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We then had a short lecture about the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle. What I found most interesting was that the Northern part of Greece is beer and butter, and the Southern part is olive oil and wine. We then met Maria at the market, which they refer to as agora. The market had typical Greek foods that were very cheap compared to how expensive they would be in the states. I bought olive oil and olives. Maria said that the bread lasts up to six months due to the fact that it is double baked. There were also a lot of souvenirs. There were a lot of pornographic key chains, coffee mugs and calendars. This is apparently very normal for Greece, due to their cultural history.
We then walked through all the streets where you can see ancient ruins of different empires that are all still being lived in and used which absolutely amazed me because of the state they were in. We then went down to the port which was absolutely breath taking. The workers at the restaurants would come up to you and try to get you to sit down in their restaurant, it was very weird and invasive. We walked around the lighthouse and I was amazed that none of it was walled off with ropes because it would be very easy to fall with how uneven the roads were with the stones.
Also what I noticed is that Greek people aren’t very time conscious, they don’t really have a schedule, and the old men just sit around chatting and eating all day. There were a lot of stray dogs but nobody would pet them, and actually ran away from them at times, which is very different from the U.S. We then got to wander around smaller streets individually and it was exactly how I picture a Greek community. We then made it back to campus and took a Zumba class. Greek Zumba is very different from American Zumba. Their Zumba was so intense and had no cool down period.
Apparently the locals were making fun of us because it was easy and they started their real class after we left. We then got to cool off and eat dinner. My favorite foods so far is the bread, tomatoes, goat cheese, olive oil, and couscous. We then got to go back into the city to see the night life. Some girls that go to the university from Tunisia went with us to show us where to go. We then made it back to campus after a very rude taxi driver got us home which is where I learned my first Greek cuss words.
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Read more from Kyre at https://kyredeniceingreece.wordpress.com/blog/
Find our more about the U of A Faculty-Led: Food, Agriculture and Sustainability in Greece program at http://studyabroad.uark.edu/aggreece