Gyros continued...yummy!

July 20, 2010

So as promised! Here’s the rest of Greece now that you all have hopefully all had your drink and potty break and grabbed another bag of munchies for round two!

Day 4 brought even more travels, more sun, and more importantly more food!!! After boarding a bus at 8 in the morning with 40 other SAS students we were headed for Delphi, the home of Apollo’s Temple ,approximately a 3 hour bus ride away from Athens. After a terrific 3 hour nap on the bus next thing I knew we were in Delphi! We started out our tour by touring the sight of the temple which not only included the temple of the god Apollo, but also various other temples, the ruins of the old town, the town’s theater and their ancient track as well.  It was so interesting to walk around the old town that was built into the mountains and when turning away from the town the view of the mountains across the valley was gorgeous! After walking through the ancient city for a while and learning about all the facts and legends surrounding the town, we headed down to the Delphi museum which house many of the pieces of art that were once housed in the old town. After our tour of the museum we began our 3 hour bus ride back down the mountain and back to Athens but only after stopping to stuff as much food into us as possible. Lunch was pre-ordered for us along with our guided tour and boy were we spoiled!
We started off with a light appetizer plate of zucchini balls, wonderful fried cheese, sausage stuffed cabbage, and a slice of spinach pie (ok so maybe not so light but it was still really good!) After appetizers we were served a traditional greek salad, meat patties stuffed with mozzarella, rice, and potatoes  and when we were finished we washed it all down with some nice, rich, honey-soaked baklava! (Is your mouth watering yet because mine is! Lol) After they wheeled us each individually back to the bus we drove for another hour before stopping at an active Montessori to tour the ground and admire the churches. After looking around the Montessori we hopped back on the bus to finish our lovely naps and before we knew it we were back in Athens!

After a quick shower and some freshening up a group of us headed back out to Piraeus in search of none other than…more food (although I’m not quite sure why since we were all so full!) Anyways, we stumbled upon a nice looking restaurant that was full of people so we decided to give it a shot. It was only after devouring 2 huge plates of warm bread and olive oil that we realized we had been there 45 minutes without ever even receiving a menu. When we inquired to one of the waiters he pulled out the menu, showed us everything was written in Greek, and said they were looking for a translator…talk about a legit Greek restaurant! Because I wasn’t very hungry  I settled on a much smaller meal than the other of bread, greek salad, and wine but was brave enough to try the various sea foods that the others were eating including fish, huge shrimp, squid, and the odd textured octopus! After dinner, even more full than before, we all but waddled back to the ship for a well deserved night’s sleep!

Waking up in Athens on our last day we decided to take it easy for the day since we had already seen all the highlights of Athens (and honestly Athens isn’t the prettiest city to explore aside from the historical sites) and to explore the local shops, vendors, and extensive flea market. Walking down the streets of Athens was more than enough though to entertain not only our eyes but our ears, noses, and senses of humor as well for several hours. Looking through the local shops we passed countless bead shops displaying the ever-popular “blue evil eye” which is rumored to ward off evil, shoe shops offering more variety of sandal than on could ever dream of, and clothing shops covering all waist and wallet sizes around. Switching gears to the local flea market that run smiles long, we didn’t quite buy anything but nonetheless is was interesting to look at what was for sale; namely anything and everything under the sun...I’m sure if you had wanted something specific and looked hard enough for it you could have found nearly 10 of them! For our last shopping of the day we switched gears to the local more touristic shops that sold many local crafts and foods where most stores had shelves upon shelves stocked high with olive oil, honey, and pistachios making our already hungry stomachs growl even louder. With little persuasion need for our hungry group I quickly lead them to my “little slice of heaven!” and enjoyed one more gyro (or better known as Domer chicken in the menu) in the same restaurant as earlier in the week before heading back more than satisfied to the boat one last time while in Greece!

So if you were able to make it through both of these posts awake and without your boss catching you I give you props because I myself wasn’t even able to write them all in one setting (too bad my papers for class don’t happen this easily!) But I am heading now to Istanbul, Turkey and will be there from the 20th to the 24th so stayedtuned for some more of my adventures and mouth watering yummy foods (okI have to keep rubbing the foods in!) and I can’t wait to hear back from all of you back at home! ( tjstjohn@semesteratsea.net )