March 4th-Rueben…Are you for scuba?

Yes…today I went scuba diving…the kind with full out gear. It was very surreal. Scuba diving was always something done in the movies and my opportunity just kind of sprung up. A meeting at school left students with the opportunity to go on a “Discovery Dive” with a local scuba company. I jumped on it, knowing I would be kicking myself if I saw photos of others exploring the Mediterranean coast.

20 of us got up at 9 AM and walked 5 minutes to the scuba shop. The man that met us…Yoti…not joking…reminded me of the fellow from “Along Came Polly”. For those of you who have seen this movie…you will know what I am talking about and have a chuckle. He had the long hair going, accent to match and just the general feel of the man in the movie. This was naturally a great start to the excursion. More and more instructors started to show up. The group was divided into the instructors’ cars and the drive to Halkidiki started. Halkidiki is the group of 3 peninsulas that lie west of Thessaloniki. This is the summer hot spot where all Thessalonians head to on the weekends and summers. It was a BEAUTIFUL hour drive.

Side note: Petro went to Halkidiki with a family friend the day before. He came back and naturally I asked him how it was. He immediately started to talk about the drive to Halkidiki. He spoke of colors….vivid vivid colors. I knew exactly what he was talking about as soon as we got out of the city on our drive. Maybe it was because Petro had put it in my head, but the greens, blues and browns of the countryside really did appear overly vivid. It was amazing. Oh, yeah, and Mt. Olympus was in clear view out the shotgun window. That mountain just does not look real. Again my love for mountains over took me here.

March 2nd—Where did February go?

We are now in the month of March….the month that contains March 31st which is the day I fly to Paris to see that lovely girlfriend of mine and some wonderful friends. Usually I take my days “day by day” but that date has always provided me with some strength and energy. Efforts to plan my spring break have taken full force. I have flights picked out, hotels lined up and plenty of anticipation brewing. If you can’t tell…I am extremely excited. Spring break is on everyone’s mind because we are all planning a trip that is beyond surreal. This is stuff we all dream of and are now taking steps to make it real. Crazy. That is all. And also, when I am making spring break trips…I often think about the epic trip back to Northern California. To this day, that family trip is been the time of my life…it was just absolutely amazing. I am soooo excited for that as well. Go Gus!!! Possible big foot sight?...who knows, we will see.

Alright, now it is just random thoughts for you.

I bought a computer speaker system (subwoofer and 2 small speakers). This was an essential purchase. You all know me and you all know I love to listen to music all the time and at loud levels. I love them and they make time at the apartment more enjoyable. I can get back to pretending my daily activities have a soundtrack. It’s great.

I tried going to a dance club last night with some friends. They denied me at the door because I had my rope sandals on. Ha! I thought this was great. I am glad it happened because this is not the establishment I want to be at. I will go ahead and say that is one downside to life here. People will actually judge you on what you are wearing. For me…that is just a ridiculous notion and there is not any place for it. Petro and I ended up running into two new local friends, Vasilis and Costas, and they invited us into the bozoukia literally right next door. Bozoukias have big stages with live performances with big bands. Everyone ends up dancing, including on stage and on tables. This is more my scene!

Classes are great. I find each one interesting and am learning a lot…contrary to possibly many of your beliefs. I love my literature class. The professor is absolutely great…someone to look up to. We read a piece prior to class…often times challenging…and then spend the class period discussing it. There is no pressure…we say what we think with no wrong answers…love it. The Greek language is coming very slowly but I am learning it piece by piece.

As always, I miss home. Family…you are in my thoughts. Madison…you are in my thoughts. I realize my attachment to UW and the city. I really don’t see any campus beating UW. I know I might be biased, but I just absolutely love that environment. Granted all my friends being there certainly does contribute to this feeling, but the city and campus are just perfect to me. I look forward to returning. The ONLY thing my campus now has over UW is mountains. I have taken quite the liking to my mountains here. We have a great relationship going…they let me climb and hike…and in return I give them a smile every time I see them!

As far as the people I have met here. I can’t seem to begin to explain them. They are all wonderful and I think I will wait to talk to you to explain them all. It would take too much effort to try and put to words off the top of my head.

Feb.24-Meteora Monasteries

A large study abroad group visited Kalabaka this past weekend. This is the site of Meteora ("Suspendid rocks"). I remember looking up pictures of Greece before leaving for my program. I came across these monasteries perched on top of cliffs. To my absolute delight, the school arranged a field trip to this breathtaking panorama. That is truly all I can say about it.

We left early Saturday morning, stopped in Trikala for lunch and just a break from the bus. Interesting note, my Greek teacher was originally from Trikala so he was very excited to hear of our travels. Our tour guide, Dafni, wonderful middle-aged women, took those interested on a tour of the old city. Of course I did not pass that up. It was either the tour or wonder around and shop. We saw the old defense walls and climbed the clock tour to get a view of the city. The weather was foggy and didn’t allow us to see too much.

A two hour bus ride from Trikala put us in Kalabaka. We were taken directly to our little hotel. The rooms had the bare essentials. I was hoping for a decent bed but found one similar to the one in my studio. I really did indulge in buying my bed this summer. I am now use to a more luxurious bed….which was a mistake given the current situation. Anyways, most people took naps or headed out into the small town. A small group of us decided to head up into the mountains and see what kind of mountaineering we could get ourselves into. It took awhile to find an entry point but we did. The terrain was slick so we had to be careful but all of us really wanted to get some hiking in. We made our way a decent way up. It was just some good clean hiking fun. I hadn’t gotten to explore nature like that in a long time and I look forward to more of it.

Something did happen before we found our unfound hiking path. An elderly man made a “come here” gesture from inside his little gated garden. None of us were sure of how to proceed, but Nikos just started to walk towards him. The man opened a door to his basement revealing his collection of homemade clay scultures. These were of prominent Greek buildings, like the Acropolis and even the White Tower in Thessaloniki. This man had these beautiful art pieces in his basement. He just wanted to show them off…great little side not to my weekend.

That night ended with a great dinner and an early retirement to bed.

I was the first one to wake up…immediately got dressed and headed down to the breakfast that was included in our trip. It was a great spread. I found a table right next to a fire that was already going. The rest of the group joined me in the hall within minutes. The group was lively…we were about to head up into the “floating rocks”…I don’t know how one couldn’t be lively.

The bus ride up there resembled my trip along highway 1 in California or the drives up the rocky mountains on my family trip to Colorado. The roads were as narrow as possible and one slip would send us down…I know…gruesome. Dafni was constantly gripping the chair…she wasn’t a fan of heights. I had a front seat view of the drive. These tour buses provided great views but the best was from the front seat. Jah and I made sure to get it each time we got on that bus.

The ascend was a quick 10 minutes and we were at our first monastery. This was the first of two, although there were 8 total.

The rest of this story is been shown through pictures. I am working on setting up an on-line photosharing site. It will be up soon. The monasteries were just as I had seen them in those pre-departure photos I had looked up. This was a simple life where monks and nuns prayed for 8 hours, worked for 8 hours and slept for 8 hours. They were used to house refugees during Turkish and Ottoman invasions/occuptations. Today, they are big tourist attractions although the monasteries have managed to stay true. Women are given long skirts to put over their legs before entering. Very few modern technologies have been adopted. The only way to reach them is still a long and challenging hike up carved steps. Just take a look at the pictures. You will see (hopefully soon)

This has been the best weekend of my trip so far. I am just a sucker for landscapes.