Weekend in Thess

Sorry it’s been a little bit, I’ve just been too mad crazy busy and haven’t had the time. Saturday I went to Kalithea in Halkidiki again, but I didn’t spend the night—Tanya drove us there and back in her car. It was just a fun, relaxing day in the sun; I think it’s probably my last beach day because I don’t know when I’ll have time to go again. The water was so warm it was practically bathwater, and for once I spent less time laying on the beach and more time swimming in the water. It was crystal clear and I could float really well. I liked just floating in the water, when all the sound goes away and you’re rocked by the waves…Saturday night I went with Tanya, the twins, Mike and Boosa to Shark, a club near us we’d never been to before. It was decorated very nicely but no one was dancing and we were too small of a group to start, but we found a nice quiet corner and just talked for hours, which was really fun.

Sunday I studied for Greek 104, which I had today. I met Mike by the White Tower and we sat in the shade and went over vocab words and verb tenses…a huge Greek guy with a super-tiny dog thought we were pretty funny, even though we thought the same about him. There was a lot going on at the White Tower yesterday—there is a peaceful protest going on right now and there are all sorts of hippies camping out in tents with signs hanging all around. Additionally they were setting up for some kind of concert, there were food trucks as far as the eye could see, and a ways to the left there was some kind of zumba demonstration. I think there was a race going on because the water was filled with sailboats. It was super sunny but there was a nice breeze—just an all around great day.

After the White Tower I went home to cook for Tanya—the building planned a surprise potluck in her honor to thank her for being the best RA ever and for being in our lives. She was at the beach all day with a friend and was going to go back to her house for dinner, so the twins called her and said that we were cooking for her. Tanya still didn’t get it though—she thought just the twins wanted to have dinner with her, and when she finally figured it out an hour after she had been home she was really moved and excited—it was really funny to watch her realize the whole building was cooking for her! We dragged all our tables and chairs out again and had a delicious (if carb-heavy) meal and enjoyed each other’s company. (I made mom’s cheesy-potatoes. They were delicious, but I used weird cheese because they don’t have the type we usually use here in Greece, and while they were in the oven I was incredibly nervous because it smelled strongly of stinky feet. Never fear, they didn’t taste like feet, and everyone enjoyed them). After dinner we gave Tanya a picture of all of us together we had framed and some flowers and she nearly cried…as did I! It was quite a struggle to get all of us together at the same time for the picture but we finally did it, and Boosa had it printed and framed.

After dinner Mike, Ari and I tried to keep studying for Greek but Mike kept falling asleep. It was hilarious; at one point he wakes up mid-snore and mumbled, “What’s the word again?” as if he had been studying in his sleep. I took the bus in at 10 even though my exam wasn’t until 12 and went over some of the vocab words again, etc. I think I did really well on some sections, like conjugating the verbs in the right tense, but other were more difficult and I could have either done really well or really badly. I think overall it went fine, and I’ll get a good grade in the class.

After the exam I came home, took a nap, and then took my notes for Modern Greek Nation-State out to the Paralia so that facebook couldn’t distract me, and, truth be told, to work on my tan. I’ve spent the day working on my digitale for World of Alexander or studying. I actually finished the digitale—it’s complete crap and 40 seconds of my three minutes are credits, but it looks like I put a lot of time into it and hits all the requirements so I’m sure I’ll do fine.

Modern Greek Nation-State tomorrow, Greek folklore on Wednesday, and then I’m done with my semester! I’ve decided not to go to the Peloponnese on Thursday—it’s just too stressful. I would have to have everything packed before I left in the morning, wouldn’t get back until Saturday night at the latest and then leave Monday morning. Plus, I just can’t be away while everyone starts leaving. Though I’m disappointed I can’t go find my family, I need to be here in Thessaloniki. This way, I’ll have a few mostly-relaxing days with which to say good-bye to everyone and do anything I need to get done. I know I’ll be coming back to Greece in the future and I can find them then.

Where is the time??

I took everything down off my wall for room checks tomorrow. It looks bare and empty. I’m having a really hard time with the fact that I have about ten days left in Greece. I have so many things I need to do, so many things that I meant to do all semester and now I don’t have time. I never went to a Greek church, I never went to a football game. And I’m already missing people so much! I literally can’t imagine what it will be like when I can’t see them every day and it’s really depressing me. People have rented out the villas on Halkidiki again this weekend, but I’m not going to stay overnight—I have too much I need to get done. I’m just going to go for the day Saturday with Tanya.

We had family barbeque today. Abby, Tanya and I made all kinds of salad, tzatziki, stuffed mushrooms, barbeque sauce from scratch, and Jake, our resident Texan, was our grill-master and presided over the meat. It was great to be outside, very summery. It’s about a thousand degrees in Greece right now, I can see why they all flee the country in August!

Tomorrow is the last day of classes, and next week is finals, Mon/Tues/Wed. Thursday I’m still planning on heading to the Peloponnese. I’m a little torn, though; it means I’ll be gone while everyone starts leaving, which is literally killing me, but I know I’ll regret it if I don’t even make the effort to find my family. I’m grasping at time as it flies out of my hands, and I hate it. I can’t go home yet!

Anastenaria

The Anastenaria firewalking ceremony Monday night was absolutely amazing. Once again, my camera died before the actual fire-walking began, so you'll have to wait until I can steal some pictues. We went to the town of Langadas, only about 12 km from Thessaloniki, to watch the last of the three nights. It was actually pretty suprising--I was picturing a tiny, rural, folksy village but it seemed pretty normal, like any other Greek town. The konaki--the place where the ceremony takes place--was right in the middle of a bunch of apartment buildings.

We got there a little early and watched them prepare. The danced a shuffly, penguin-like dance in the konaki while holding icons or red cloths that symbolized their empowerment by the saints. The room was hot, full of smoke and incense as they danced in a trace to the music. We split up the group a little bit so as not to intrude on so large a scale. After a little while we went and grabbed a frappe (of course) with the class while we waited for the fire-walking to begin, and got back in time to position ourselves where we could view it best. As the fire died down some men spread the coals around and the Anastenaria came out.

The walked in circles around the coals for a while and then the leader hopped on. It was incredible to watch, as these people did their penguin-shuffle across the coals. The whole point of the festival is that they believe they are called to walk across the coals by the saints and that Saint Constantine will protect them from harm if they do so. Watching them dance, you could feel their faith as a tangible element in the air. It was an incredibly powerful experience. At one point, they brought out this little boy who had leg braces on and looked just like one of my ELEPAP kids. One man carried him as he danced across the coals and the others formed a group around him, dancing and shuffling and praying for his healing. At this point I nearly cried; it was incredibly overwhelming, and their belief was so strong that in that moment you couldn't help but believe it a little too.

One of the younger Anastenaria girls, about my age, had her shoes on and wasn't going to dance but was so moved that she kicked off her shoes and the leaders of the dance held on to her and lead her through the coals. That was also a really interesting thing to see, just as a way to reinforce the group power dynamics. There were people of all ages and genders dancing--middle-aged mothers, old men, young people, ancient yia yias--but you could definitely tell there were specific roles and definite leaders of the ritual. The dancing didn't actually last very long, but it was still an incredibly powerful, moving experience that I was glad to witness. I almost didn't go becuase I was so exhuasted from the Mykonos trip; good thing I did!

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day--at least 85 degrees, sunny, no clouds. The bus was hell; it was so hot! After class I took the bus down to Navarinou Square and then walked back along the Paralia. It was great because it was super windy by the water so even though it was a thousand degrees, it wasn't too bad. And the water, usually kind of dirty and nasty-looking, was a beautiful shade of teal.

Last night I meant to go to bed early since I had to get up this morning for ELEPAP but I ended up staying up until about four. Katie, Kelli, Abby, Boosa, Mike and I grabbed a beer or two and sat by the water, feet dangling over the edge, just talking. (For two in the morning, there were a suprising number of people still out on the boardwalk--we even saw a pair of guys out for a run!) I was tired but didn't want to leave--it was just nice and chill, and I'm running out of time to talk to these people! I figured I could sacrifice a little sleep in exchange for the friendships and the memories--I'm going to miss everyone so much, when I can't just pop downstairs whenever I want....these last two weeks are going to be tough.

This morning I had my last day at ELEPAP. It was really bittersweet; I don't know if the kids know I'm not coming back, and they were so excited to see me! All the little girls hung over me all day, holding my hands and sitting in my lap. One little boy told me I was as pretty as Kostantina, the little girl in the class he's in love with--adorable! The are all such sweet, lovely little angels, and I'm going to miss my Wednesday mornings with them. Asimi, the guy who runs the classroom I helped out in, is actually studying to teach Greek as a foriegn language and gave me a list of a bunch of helpful websites before I left. I'm going to check those out and hopfully use them to keep up with my Greek once I'm home.

That's about all for now. I'm writing this from school, waiting for classes to begin. For two of my classes, it's the last time we meet before finals. Everything is winding down so quickly! I promise pictures of the Anastenaria and of the Mykonos trip as soon as I can grab some; sorry to make you wait!

Mykonos 2011!

Hello all! I'm back from my weekend in Mykonos and it was a blast. We got back at 3AM this morning and I got up at 9 for a full day of school, but I'm not too tired because I was able to sleep on the nine hour bus ride back, and the five hour ferry before that....we spent a lot of time traveling to and from Mykonos, to the point where the amount of time we actually spent on the island was disproportionate to the amount of time we spent trying to get there or get home. It was worth it, though, for a really fun weekend.

We left Thursday night and drove to Athens to catch a ferry to the island Friday morning. It took forever--the drive from Thessaloniki to Athens is a max six hour drive that somehow took us nine hours, both there and back; I don't know if the driver was going super slow or what, because there was no traffic at three in the morning. It didn't help that we constantly stopped for up to thirty minutes at a time so that all the Greeks and Serbians could have a smoke break. They smoked on the bus anyway--it was freezing because they took shifts sitting at an open window and blowing smoke out it.

I actually got to know a lot more of the regular students here at ACT over this trip, which was kind of nice. I don't have many classes that the Greeks/Albanians are interested in taking, and I rarely hang out with them and this proved to be a rare opportunity to talk with them get to know them a little better. They're all super nice, and it was great to meet a wider range of people than just Americans, although it's a little unfortunate it happened this late in the game.

We got to the hotel around noon, jumped in our swimsuits, and headed to the beach. We spent the whole of Friday and Saturday this way. The beaches were really beautiful, and busy but not overly-crowded. We also walked around Mykonos Town and got food there a lot, which was gorgeous as well--they typical Greek-island style you picture when someone says Greece. I recognized a lot of places from when I was there with my family a few years ago on our cruise, which was fun to remember. I'm really bummed, though, because I have absolutely no pictures! I charged my battery before I left but for some reason the second I tried to turn on my camera to take a beautiful panoramic picture of a gropu of windmills on a hill overlooking the town and the water, it said my battery was dead! I'll post some for you later once everyone starts posting them on facebook and I steal them...

We rented ATVs for the weekend, which was the best thing we could have possibly done. It gve us the freedom to move about the island as we wanted, from the hotel to town to the beach, etc, and it was so much fun! They had them fixed for tourists so even if you floored it over a flat, straight surface you could never really get above 40 km/hr, but it was still fun; plus, you wouldn't want to go faster than that over the curves and twists and hills anyway. I loved it--they were a blast to drive around and sturdier than mopeds or scooters so a bit safer as well. It must be so annoying to live on the island, constantly having to drive around these slow tourists clogging the roads. Friday night we drove them into town to grab a gyro and got a little lost wandering the streets--it took us a good hour to find our ATVs again because we got all turned around!

There was a restaurant right by our hotel called Oregano that was some of the best food I've had in all of Greece. They had just about everything, and it was like Skopelos where it was laid out and you just pick out what you wanted--it was all fabulous. The pastitsiou especially was amazing! They really liked me there too--I went back for dinner just to grab something to bring back to the hotel and they gave me all kinds of free food.

Other than that, it was just a fun, relaxing weekend with a group of people I've come to care a lot about whom I'm going to leave in two weeks. There was a hint of that all weekend--we had lots of fun, but we see the fun ending soon, so we made sure to cram as much fun into the weekend as possible!

School all day today, followed by a field trip with my Folklore class to see a firewalking ceremony, which I'm pretty excited for. I'll make sure to have pictures for that one!

Haircut Fail Part II

I had another Greek hair fail. I went to the place across the street where everyone has been going and coming back looking great. I googled all the necessary words and then some relating to hair, and walked in armed with all kinds of hair knowledge. It was going really great and I successfully explained exactly what I wanted—no haircut, just side-bangs. She understood perfectly, everything was going well….until she asked me how long I wanted them. I thought she was asking me where I wanted them to start, but I think, in retrospect, she was asking me where they should finish, because that’s what happened. It’s not too terrible, just way too short for my crazy hair. Also, as she was explaining afterwards (in Greek, and I understood!), I have a weird foppy wanky bit on the left side (good description Rach) which makes it so it won’t lie flat, so next time I get my hair cut I should ask for the part on the other side and it will look much better. Helpful for later, but not looking so hot now.

Other than that, spent the day laying around recovering more. I already feel a thousand times better than before, but I’m still going to be really careful the next few days to make sure I recover fully. I’ve got a fully-stocked pharmacy in my backpack…

Heading to Mykonos in twenty minutes. I guess I’ll just look weird in all the pictures from this weekend, but so be it. I can’t wait, it’s going to be so much fun; I’ll tell you about it when I get back!

Antibiotics

I’ve been feeling pretty crappy the past few days so yesterday I made an appointment with the school doctor to take a look at me. She determined I had a bacterial infection and said that I could take antibiotics, which medically she’s required to prescribe me if I want them, but she’s morally against them and if I felt strong enough, I shouldn’t take them. She then spent a good ten minutes listing out about 6 different herbal, natural substances I could take instead that she said would clear me out in about a week. I asked how long the antibiotics would take. She sighed—three days.

Give me the antibiotics, woman! I only have about 2 weeks left, I don’t want to spend it sick in bed! Plus, I want to go to Mykonos this weekend! Are you insane?! Needless to say, it’s good old traditional Western medicine for me. I went home early yesterday, took the first dose of antibiotics and spent the day watching movies in bed, and I already feel 100% better than I did before. I also got some kind of Greek cough syrup that helped, but tasted like death—who thought ouzo-flavor would be a good idea? I’m going to do the same thing today, just lay around, until it’s time to get on the bus tonight at 8. I figure I can sleep on the bus to Athens and use that as recovery time. The doctor really doesn’t want me to go to Mykonos, but I have to go. It’s one of the last weekends and everyone is going, and I would hate to be feeling better by Friday but have stayed home and missed this last chance to be with everyone.

Time is flying by so fast. I can’t believe I’m almost done. I don’t know what I’m going to do without everyone. It’s funny, because everyone keeps saying how they are “soo done” with classes, (and yes, school is getting old, here comes summer) but once classes are done, so is our Greek experience. And I’m definitely not ready for it to be over!

“But you’re so young!”

Mt. Olympus got me sick! I woke up in the middle of the night all stuffed up, and in the morning lost my voice. I thought other than that I was fine, so I went to school but after two classes I suddenly felt really feverish and shaky so went home early. I google-translated some words relating to how I was feeling and stopped at a pharmacy. I had what I was going to say all planned out and was just beginning my spiel when she said, “What do you need?” and my whole thing was ruined. I got what I needed and asked for something to help me sleep as well, meaning Nyquil or some other nighttime medicine. I think she misunderstood, because she just sighed and said, “But you’re so young!” and then gave me the strongest non-prescription sleeping pills in the store. Whatever, it’ll work the same, I just hate how I can never sleep when I’m sick.

The new people have moved into the building. There’s a group of eight girls and their professor from Butler in Indiana who are here for some economic thing and are staying here until the beginning of June. And, since the second floor is empty except for me and the twins, they’re living up here with us. I haven’t met any of the girls, just the professor. Apparently we won’t be seeing too much of them, though, because even at night they always have some kind of activity going on.

That’s all that’s new, I’m going to take some of these pills and go to sleep and hope I feel better in the morning.

Hiking Mt. Olympus

I just got back from our two-day hike of Mt. Olympus! It was really fun and incredibly exhausting. My legs are so rock-hard right now; I’ve stretched them out as much as I can, so they’re not too bad, but one of my knees is bothering me a little from the descent. It was so worth it though, to be able so say that I’ve climbed the mountain of the gods!

The mountain had definite stages; they told us to bring warm clothes but pack light, since we had to carry everything up ourselves to the lodge. I wore my yoga pants and was really hot during the first stage. It actually reminded me a lot of Weston—it wasn’t too steep and was just really nice wooded paths and boulders, etc, and except for the occasional patches of donkey poop I might have been in Weston. It wasn’t too steep there and we were going painfully slow to keep the group together—I thought if it was going to be like that the whole way up I would go crazy.

(I know I wasn’t super prepared just because I don’t really have mountaineering equipment, but some people had no idea what they were getting into. Some girls dressed like they were going on a little walk, trying to look cute, without tennis shoes or high socks. Before we even got out of stage one they were complaining about blisters, and it was a little annoying—we’re hiking up a mountain. If you’re not prepared for what that entails you shouldn’t have come!)

Luckily, after a little bit we were able to splinter into smaller groups since we had enough guides so those who wanted to go faster could go and those that wanted to take their time could slow down. I, of course, was in the former group. I know I pushed myself a little hard, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I couldn’t, personality-wise. I was literally the third one to the lodge, and our guide said we were one of the fastest groups he’s ever taken up.

Gradually the terrain got a little steeper, the trees changed to pine and scrub. It was definitely a challenge. It also got colder the higher we climbed—whenever we took a break we put on our sweatshirts to keep from getting sick but climbed in tank tops and t-shirts. It was disgusting; the back of mine was completely soaked through with sweat to the point it was a different color than the front.

The most surreal part was when we got to the point where there was snow on the ground—I was in a tank top, sweating intensely, throwing snowballs in Greece in the middle of May. What?

It was colder up at the lodge; there was snow all around. We couldn’t really shower since there was no hot water, we could just change into less-sweaty clothes. I was disgusting all weekend, but so was everyone else, so it was fine. The food was overpriced, but what else are you going to do, go somewhere else? There really wasn’t much to do at the actual lodge but warm up, drink some hot chocolate or crappy wine, talk with friends. Sleeping arrangements were two huge rooms with rows of bunk beds pushed together. There was no heating, only what seemed to be an unlimited supply of horse blankets and cuddling with friends..needless to say it wasn’t very restful sleep after an exhausting day. Lights went out at 10:00 and don’t come on under any circumstances until morning, so my mid-night bathroom break was a challenge. If I hadn’t gone with someone who saw it during the day, I would never have found it, considering you had to go outside. It was not fun trying to feel around for the toilet bowl in the pitch black…

We got up early the next morning to hike up higher. Those who were too tired stayed at the lodge and the rest of up climbed. It was probably the most difficult climbing, because we were literally scaling rocks and snow. We couldn’t go up as far as in past years (when they’ve gotten all the way to the top) because it’s been especially cold and snowy this year and without real mountain boots and poles you could get seriously hurt. We still went pretty far. The view was breathtaking, when you could stop a moment and look around, otherwise, you just concentrated on where you were putting your feet. Going down was even worse—very slippery and nearly impossible for those without real shoes on. It was good being in the front though; we got to see a wild mountain goat before everyone scared it away!

We got back to the lodge and by 1130 were making out way back down the mountain. Once we got out of the snowy area it wasn’t difficult at all, just hard on the knees and ankles. We played all sorts of trail games and bonded. I pretty much flew down that mountain, especially at the end. Once we got the Westony-bit everyone was pretty much going at their own pace and I was by myself. I think that was my favorite part, because it was easy and gorgeous, so I could enjoy it. It either sloped down very little so didn’t hurt my knee or was flat/slightly uphill, but that’s my favorite kind of terrain to hike; and the trees were so green and it was quiet, I could hear birds and the wind…it was really nice!

We had lunch (again overpriced) at a taverna at the foot of the mountain, then the bus picked us up and I conked out for the ride. I’m home, did laundry, ate food. I’m actually feeling really great about myself—my legs and butt are going to look ridiculously good after this weekend! Plus, I just had so much fun with all the people that went; it was a really great group. The gain is completely worth the pain of the trek!

I have a bunch of pictures again, so I’ve uploaded them to Flickr. The last six photo credits go to my friend Boosa—he was constantly scrambling up the mountain ahead of everyone in order to take pictures, and they’re all amazing! I had to share a couple with you, even if I had to pull them off facebook so the quality isn’t that great. Check out the pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626728000644/

Dialects

I was having an interesting discussion with Rhonda the other night about different Greek accents. There are some people I understand perfectly and others that I know are speaking Greek but I have no idea what they’re saying. Rhonda was saying that not only are there regional accents, but village vs. city accents. Even within her island, you can tell whether someone is from the city or the country based on the way they talk—she said that she has a really village accent and the people in Thessaloniki can tell. She also said that Athens is where they speak the most textbook-correct Greek, and the farther away you get the less proper speaking becomes.

The next day in Greek 104 we somehow got on a similar topic of dialects and how people in different parts of Greece say different things. Cretans, for example, have one of the most distinct dialects. It was also really interesting because the teacher concurred Athenians speak the most correct Greek, and gave a cool example. People in Thessaloniki, apparently, always use με even when grammatically you need  μας, so that when they go to say things like, “I cook for him” they literally say “I cook him”, etc. Just a fun little fact!

Last night was one of that last school-sponsored parties at one of the new summer clubs. It was fun but absolutely exhausting. My whole body hurts and my foot was speared by someone’s stiletto. Getting up for class this morning was the most difficult thing in the world—my teacher said she was surprised even the five of us showed up. It was the funniest class we’ve ever had; the students convinced her to hold class outside so there were the five of us, the teacher, and two random kids sitting around one of the cafeteria tables outside. For an hour, all these extremely hungover kids sat outside munching on food and trying to stay awake, not even trying to take notes, while our teacher told us about Greek/Turkish relations in the 1990s.

I got home and slept for four hours, which kind of bums me out because it was an absolutely gorgeous day and I missed most of it. Abby, Katie, and Kelli tried to drag me out for lunch but I was so tired I couldn’t even concentrate on what they were saying and just went back to sleep. After my nap though, we went out for coffee with Boosa—it was nice sitting in the sunshine and being out of the apartment. We walked along the paralia for sunset and then went back, so at least I got out of the house!

Tomorrow I’m climbing Mt. Olympus! I’m excited but I’m not bringing my computer so I’ll tell you about it when I get back Sunday. It should be really fun, and quite an experience. I have no idea about the weather, though, I hope I bring the right clothes!

Even the Little Greeks Drink Frappe

This morning I went to ELEPAP again. I’m sure you’ve all read about the protests in Athens—there were protests today in Thessaloniki as well. We got an e-mail from the school telling us to avoid certain areas, and one girl’s father was flying in today but was super delayed because of all the striking. The buses were hardly running as well, so even though I got to the stop a half hour early I was still a good twenty minutes late to ELEPAP. When the bus finally arrived it was so jam packed I thought I wouldn’t be able to get on, and I’m one of those that always squeeze on no matter how crowded. Luckily I had struck up a conversation with some Greek ladies at the stop while waiting who literally pulled me on to the bus. I nearly got stuck in the door, but I made it!

The kids were super cute today, as always. One of the girls, the one who talks constantly, hadn’t been there the past few weeks but was there today. She was adorable, keeping up a stream of chatter as she offered me tea and food she cooked in the play kitchen. She pretended to drink out of a cup and I asked her what she was drinking, hot chocolate? She responded with yes, kind of like hot chocolate….but it’s frappe. She then rattled on for a good two minutes about what was in her frappe, why she liked it so much; it was just too cute and oh so hilarious! Even the tiny baby Greeks are obsessed with their coffee!

Her relationship with one of the little boys was adorable too.They were like best friends and a little old married couple—she’d give him a kiss on the cheek and then go bring him a plate and a cup with the food she’d cooked, they’d eat it together and he would “do the dishes” and put the silverware away. It was adorable!

Back at school, we had a meeting today about the Mt. Olympus hike this weekend. It was one of those ACT meetings that last forever without any real information being communicated. We kept trying to pin them down on the weather and how to dress, but they would always respond with, “It can get as cold as 5 degrees at night, but it’s supposed to be very nice weather during the day”. Nice weather? Does that mean sunny but cold, or as warm as could be possible on top of a mountain, or so hot you’ll be stripping off layers? All we wanted, really, was a specific temperature. 15? 20? But nothing. Also, we apparently can’t even get to the tippy-top, because there is still a lot of snow up there. At least we have multiple guides (I think) when we explore the second day so we can split into groups and explore paths of different difficulty levels—looking around the room, there was a lot of variation in athletic ability that has me a little worried.

I made Greek meatballs from scratch today—they actually turned out deliciously. The recipe was from a cookbook Mimi gave to Mom, so it was pretty authentic. Plus, I made way too much and so shared with the building, which I always love doing because I love the building and enjoy feeding them, and they always make me feel good about what I’ve made.

Tonight I went for hookah for the first time since my burn (the burn, by the way, is way better, it just looks like a huge birthmark and I’ve heard comments to that effect). I was a little nervous when they brought out the tea, but I have come through the experience unscathed!

Bus Food Fail

Things went incredibly smoothly this morning since I practiced only a few days ago. I went to sleep with all these Government phrases swirling around in my head and I think it gave me pretty weird dreams. The breakfast man was delighted to see me, especially when I remembered his name. I flew through this test as well—I don’t think I did as well, but well enough considering before yesterday I hadn’t looked at the material in months. Plus, I’m a pretty good bs-er when it comes to tests, so I’m sure I did fine.

There was a horse market going on in Tyrnavos that I explored while waiting for the bus to Larisa. Apparently it’s mildly famous (though less so than their penis festival). They had horses for sale but also all the normal things and kiddie rides in addition to—my personal favorite—food from a truck. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but there is something about food that comes out of the back of a dirty-looking van or trailer that makes me so hungry, because the food is always so delicious. It’s fairly common here in Greece, but I think this impulse won’t be as favorable once I’m back to the states….I got a gyro and ate it on the bus back to Thessaloniki—I’m not sure if that was really socially acceptable by the others on the bus, since it was so fragrant and I still can’t eat one gracefully, but it was delicious and therefore worth it.

Now I’m home and have been procrastinating writing an essay and studying Greek. I’ve been trying to figure out how to get to Xeimadio, but the internet has been acting up. I’m trying to visit my ancestral home in the Peloponnese before I have to go home, but I’m running out of time, plus it’s hard to figure out the busing to such a small town on websites that don’t have English translations as well. I figure I’ll just jump on a bus to Pyrgos and see what happens from there—it can’t be more than half an hour away, judging by the map.

Larisa Take Two

Back in Larisa for my AP Government Exam. Same hotel, same routine, I’ve got it all down now. I think I may have gotten Swimmer’s Ear from the beach because my left ear and left side of the throat hurts when I swallow, or I might be coming down with a cold. Either way, I thought it would be safe to buy some rubbing alcohol to take care of that. Every time we ever did circumlocution exercises in Spanish class I always thought it was really pointless; when would you ever need to describe something when you know the word? Well, when you forget the word or don’t know it, having the vocabulary to still get your point across comes in handy. I don’t know many medical words or words relating to the body, and the couple in the pharmacy didn’t speak English. They pulled out the right stuff first try though, when I said “I have water (point to ear), I need something to clean…alcohol?” The lady laughed and congratulated the man on figuring it out so quickly because she didn’t want to be here all night, and she seemed surprised when I understood and laughed.

Got my gyro at the same place across the street and it was still packed. It’s a Monday night, so it’s less crowded outside, and I’m on the side of the building away from the main square this time, so it’s much quieter. I’m just sitting in my room going over old Govt notes to refresh. Shout-out to Ali Kolbert—your notes helped me get through the class and they’ll help me pass the AP test too!

Χαλκιδική

Hello everyone! Sorry for my absence from writing the past couple days. I partly blame the impromptu beach vacation I took the other day….

Halkidiki is the closest nice beach to Thessaloniki. It’s actually a large area of land with three “fingers” sticking out that all have a plethora of gorgeous beaches. People from Thessaloniki and Halkidiki area swear by Halkidiki beaches and think they’re better than what you can find on the Greek islands. They are beautiful; the one I ended up on was a secluded, beautiful sandy beach with crystal clear waters.

Saturday my friends and I were just going to go to the closest Halkidiki beach for the day, but right after we bought our tickets we got a call from Tanya (who was already there) who said the part of the beach where we were going to meet them was windy and cold, so they were turning around. Luckily we ran into Logan, who was heading out to a different part of Halkidiki where some people had rented a villa for the weekend. I had actually planned on that originally before we decided to just day trip it. Rather than waste my ticket, I just hopped on the bus with him and headed out to the beach.

As I was sitting there on the hour and a half bus ride to Kalithea, I got a little worried and started regretting my snap decision. Since I thought I was only going for the day, I had a towel, a water bottle, and money in my bag. I had no clothes except the sundress I was wearing, no toothbrush, no hairbrush, not even underwear, since I was wearing my suit under my dress!

Not to worry though, because I had a great time. Everyone there was really great about lending me stuff so that I was less of a hobo. It was such a fun weekend! There were about 12 people there—I was a bit nervous at first because, while I was on friendly terms with all of them, for the most part they weren’t people I normally hang out with on a regular basis. I shouldn’t have worried, because they were all really cool and nice and I’m definitely going to see more of them in the future.

It was pretty much just your typical college beach party, something new for me—day drinking and munching chips on the beach, drinking games and grilling sausages back at the villa. I shot-gunned my first beer, that type of thing. It was nice, though, to have such an intimate group of people that I knew, so I never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. I got plenty of sun, as my red face definitely shows. The weather where we were at was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze that cooled you off but didn’t make you cold, strong sun, cold, crisp water. It was great fun and really cheap too—since there were few enough of us that we could cram into one villa and not have to open up the second one (albeit using every possible couch and armchair as beds), it was really inexpensive. I only spent 35 euro the whole weekend, which includes food, mass quantities of beer, and a place to stay.

We got back early last night—for a little bit we were nervous the bus wasn’t going to come pick us up, but it came right as we were trying to figure out a plan B. I made myself a roasted eggplant with roasted garlic and kefalotyri, but I didn’t realize you have to sweat the eggplant out before you roast it, so it wasn’t that great. I had a salad too, made with the freshest lettuce imaginable—Tanya had picked it from the farm that morning. It’s great when Tanya goes to the farm because she always brings back tons of farm-fresh veggies for us all, and it’s always delicious!

Question: Do we have kefalotyri back in the states? Because it is literally the most delicious cheese I’ve ever tasted. It’s going to be so weird when I get back home—at first I was disappointed I couldn’t make certain things here in Greece because the ingredients would be too hard to find (like anything Cajun—I miss my gumbo!), but now I’m thinking about how much my diet will change when I come home and all the ingredients that I use on a regular basis (like kefalotyri) won’t be available anymore. Or, they’ll be like peanut butter, in that you can find it but it’s super-expensive.

That’s all for now. I’m finishing up some work and then heading back to Larisa to take AP Government tomorrow. Whereas Lit required no studying, I think I should probably go over my old Government notes, just to refresh the details…gotta make Mr. Moeder proud!

AP Lit Exam

I had a good morning in Larisa. I woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. The old man running the dining room was really sweet—I was the only one in there that early and we started talking. I apparently have a very good accent when I speak Greek, and whenever I start trying to use Greek on people they always think I speak it much better than I actually do, which is flattering but confusing when they start rattling off words. We actually had a really nice talk in Greek—I love it when I’m able to have real conversations with people; it makes me feel like I’m actually learning stuff!

I got a bit worried when none of the taxi drivers seemed to have heard of the school but eventually I was able to describe where it was. The school is really interesting; it looks to be a fairly large building complex, but the student population, ages K-12, numbers about 50 kids. I was talking to the lady proctoring my exam and she said that they have about 9 kids in the eighth grade, while grades 7 and 9 figure in at one student. The school has something to do with both NATO and the newly formed Balkan army that has a base near by, and the students are either the children of NATO diplomats, Balkan soldiers, or local families of mixed marriages. I was the only one taking AP Lit but they did proctor other exams to other students; some kids from the school took AB Calc (seems they speak that international language much better than I do), and on Saturday they’re also proctoring the SATs to kids from the school and to kids like me who live farther away, like Volos.

It was the best AP test I’ve ever taken. Since I was the only student, she didn’t have to read through all that crap about filling out the forms wait tons of time for me to complete it and make sure I was writing in the right spot, I just filled it out. Which is amazing, because my biggest pet peeve with these things is how long everything takes because of the carefully choreographed circus you must go through. And, when I finished early with time left over, we were done and could move on to the next section; I didn’t have to sit it out and wait for everyone else. She was very impressed with me, considering I finished both sections with at least a half hour to spare, and I think was pretty excited that she got that much of her day back. I also got to sit in a really comfy, plushy desk chair and got hot chocolate while I took my test. I was taken care of!

The school was right by the Tyrnavos bus station so my proctor drove me there (it was raining—they really were great to me at this school!) and I took the bus back to Larisa. When I was packing I made a snap decision to throw in a sundress and see if maybe I wanted to go to Meteora after to see the monasteries. I haven’t seen them and they are apparently amazing, and I’m running out of time. My Friday class is canceled and I figured it would be a perfect opportunity if I could get there from Larisa. I checked, but I’d have to transfer somewhere, and the weather forecast changed from when I check in Thess—I would be hiking up a mountain while it’s pouring, so I just bought a ticket back home. Of course, I got a call that I’d left my dress in the closet (I didn’t want it to get wrinkled) twenty minutes before my bus was to leave. I sprinted down, grabbed it, and sprinted back right as the bus was starting to pull away. I chased it down and banged on the door—the bus driver was annoyed but they let me on!

I got back to Thessaloniki in time for Thursday cooking club; we made some kind of green chicken curry that was delicious but so spicy I thought I was going to die, and bagels from scratch for the whole building to enjoy. (Did you know you have to boil bagels before you bake them?) We made plain, sesame, and cinnamon-sugar, although we underestimated the demand for the sweet ones. Other than that, a quiet night in.

Larisa

My backpack, which I swore I never wanted to see again after my two weeks of traveling, has already been whipped back out. I’m spending the night in Larisa so that I can take my AP Lit Exam at the International School here. The bus doesn’t run early enough in the morning for me to make it so I have to spend the night. I’ve actually been here before—we took the bus here to get to Tyrnavos for the Phallus Festival. We didn’t actually get to see Larisa, and although it’s dark now, it actually looks really cute. I’m staying in a hotel right on the main shopping plaza, with cobbled stones and little fountains all over the place. There are tons of people out right now, having a coffee or rushing to finish shopping as the stores start to close. I ran across the street to a gyro place. The hotel is simple, but clean, and I get breakfast tomorrow before I leave. I realized that this is actually the first time I’m really traveling by myself, without any family or friends—I’ve always stayed with someone I knew but now I’m all by myself!

It’s really warm here—I wore sweats and sneakers for the bus, which is usually on the cooler side, and because it was raining cats and dogs back in Thess, but I’m burning up. I have the balcony door open (letting in all the street noise) and my PJ shorts on, but I’m still really warm.

Wish me luck tomorrow on my exam!

Quick Daily Update

I’m pretty tired from finishing up spring break, but a quick update on today:

Yesterday was the last night Abby’s parents were in Thessaloniki, so they took us out to Kitchen Bar for dinner; her parents were so sweet and the food was delicious.

Speaking of delicious, I got a care package from home that was pretty much a dress, junk food, and tea. AMAZING! So many Reeses! And poptarts—I forgot those even existed! Also, I got a t-shirt that says ‘Muggle’ on it. Beat that!

It sunshowered today, my favorite kind of rain. It didn’t rain hard and the rain was warm and the sun was shining. I didn’t even realize it when I left the apartment for class and was just walking around in a t-shirt but I was fine. When I stopped by the vegetable lady she asked if I was cold and seemed very amused when I said I wasn’t (looks like my Greek is coming back to me!)

Other than that, churned out an essay, booked a hotel in Larisa. I have to travel two hours in order to take the AP Exams, and the bus doesn’t run early enough in the morning so I have to go the night before. I got tomorrow night and take Lit Thursday morning, and then have to go back Monday night to take US Government Tuesday. What a pain in the butt.

And that’s the news!

Spring Break Stop Seven: Madrid

Our last stop was Madrid. I think we got the most we possibly could out of Madrid, but keep in mind, it’s the most we could after two weeks of non-stop motion. We were tired; gone were the seven hour walking days of Venice. We did another walking tour the first day, and it nearly killed me. We went back to take a quick nap and ended up sleeping for three hours—it was unfortunate, but I think unavoidable.

We took the night bus from Sevilla and to our hostel around 6 in the morning—our room wasn’t ready but we slept in the common room until breakfast time. We went on the walking tour, which, while we liked the tour guide less, was again something I enjoyed. You discover things you couldn’t on your own, like the fact that the Cathedral is much prettier from behind because the front faces the Palace and wasn’t allowed to compete; you would only see the back if you crossed a certain bridge. Or the fact that when they were constructing the Gran Via in the modern part of town, they wanted it to be very new and modern and so started basing the architecture off Paris, and then, as the ‘city of the future’ changed, changed it to the art-deco style of New York. Or the fact that the building Hemmingway lived in when in Madrid is now the local AA. I needed to be told these things.

We also got to see the art museums, which I’m always a fan of. In the Prado, we got to see works by Velazquez (including his famous Las Meninas), El Greco (who I’ve loved since Spanish class) and Goya. In la Reina Sofia, we saw works by more modern painters like Picasso and Dali. This museum was up and down for me—some things were really interesting, but like with all modern art, there’s only so much I can handle. If it’s something that looks like what I did in kindergarten, I’m not impressed. Picasso’s Guernica was there; I never realized how big it is. It’s literally gigantic, double my apartment wall, though that’s not saying much. Also, Dali is completely crazy. We just stared at some of his stuff and wondered what was going on in his mind. I think to be in one of his paintings would be to be in a nightmare. There were some paintings of his that blew me even more out of the water, because they were so “normal”. In a room labeled classicism meets surrealism were some works done by him in the same period of time that were so completely not-Dali it was hard to believe they were done by the same guy!

After our second day in Madrid we had our final night as airport hobos. Although this time, we were surrounded by other hobos too. We spent all day Thursday traveling, flying Madrid to Brussels and Brussels to Madrid with a three hour layover. Ryanair, since they’re so cheap, turns out to be really sadistic and makes you jump through about a million hoops just because they can. We got to sit in the front row Brussels to Thess though, and even though we were uncomfortably close to the stewardesses we were comfortably able to stretch our legs. We also ran into another ACT student in the Brussels airport who was on our same flight.

And that’s spring break. We got home around 6:00, earlier than expected, and I resisted the urge to go into a coma and instead unpacked and started getting settled back into life.

Whew! Finally done with the spring break posts! Sorry if they got a little tedious, I was getting tired writing them too! We had tons of adventures and laughs and inside jokes the whole trip, I can’t even begin to describe them to you so sadly these little summaries will have to make do. I know it makes it sound much more boring, but this is what I’ve been up to. It was a great trip, and although exhausting, I’m glad I took full advantage of being in Europe by traveling to see as much as I could.

My sense of language is all mixed up now. In Italy I kept speaking Greek or Spanish. In Spain I kept using Greek or the one Italian word I knew, gratzi, even though I understood everything people were saying to me! I was talking to a bus driver and he was giving me a detailed explanation that I understood perfectly and at the end asked me, “Do you understand?” and I responded, “Nei!”—yes in Greek, but sounds an awful lot like no in Spanish, so he started telling me again. Now that I’m back in Greece, I keep saying “Si!'” to people or responding in Spanish, even though I did a crap job at it while actually in Spain. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Hopefully it will wear off and I’ll be back to my native tongue in a day or two…

Final spring break photos, de Madrid: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626640393816/

Spring Break Stop Six: Sevilla

Number one stop: Sevilla. I absolutely loved it here. It was beautiful, and the weather was (mostly) nice, and we were there a sufficient number of days. We also got in the day before Easter and left the day after, so we got to see the famous Processions and Easter/Lent celebrations of Semana Santa, and we went to the famous Catedral de Sevilla for Easter service. Plus, perfect timing, the bullfighting season had just begun, so we got to experience that as well.

We had the best food when in Sevilla too, hands down. The most amazing tapas for the best prices. Ridiculously good paella. Once place, called Bodega Santa Cruz, was packed and you had to stand crowded around tiny tall tables, but it was so worth it—there was this spinach-cheese tapa that I could have ate a pint of. If you want the best food in Spain, go to Sevilla!

We got to see a Procession, which was really interesting. All throughout Holy Week, different Christian brotherhoods carry pasos, images of usually the Virgin Mary or Christ, from their home churches to the Catedral and back—those farther away can walk up to 15 hours! Plus, they carry the pasos, about 25-40 men for what can weigh as much as a metric ton. In one of the pictures I got a peek at their feet underneath this mammoth paso of the Virgin Mary. Those in the procession wear long robes and pointed hoods, with the color corresponding to their brotherhood. The ones we saw were white—and no, they are in no way related to the Klan. It was just really fun and interesting to view and be a part of a festival I’ve learned about in school—what are the odds I would be in the city just at the right time?

Easter morning we wore our nicest clothes (which still weren’t quite Easter-nice) and went to service at the Catedral. It was funny, though, because we were actually among some of the better-dressed people. Everyone in there was a tourist, for the most part. It makes sense, because anyone who lives in Sevilla would have their own local church or brotherhood with services to attend. We weren’t allowed to take pictures, but it was just a lot of music and incense-waving and walking slowly and ceremoniously around. I understood all the scriptures, though, and the main address, which made me feel pretty good. We were there for almost three hours—we got there a half hour early and got really good seats about 5 hard wooden benches back and a little to the side, and the service lasted over 2 hours. I was just glad to be in a church for Easter, even if it was Catholic and in a different language, and it was, again, just another really cool experience to now have had.

Easter afternoon we went on a free walking tour provided by our hostel, and it was great. It was three hours exploring most of the major landmarks, buildings, and monuments of the city, and our guide was really knowledgeable. It was everything I’d been missing in all the other cities—the history! Learning! I absolutely hate visiting amazing, important sites and just looking at it, thinking, “Huh, that’s nice.” I need to know why it’s important, what happened here? I learned not only about the history of the main parts of Sevilla, but little things too, like why one street was named Calle de Muertos (round up of the Jews during the Inquisition) or why there was a tile with a skull painted on it (references a crazy story about a girl who chose her lover over her family, regretted it, became a nun and had the archbishop’s babies before killing herself and asking that her skull be displayed as a warning) that I wouldn’t even have noticed otherwise. It was great, and made me fall even more in love with Sevilla!

It had been sunny and warm all day, but right as the walking tour ended there was a sudden flash thunderstorm. We thought we were closer to our hostel than we thought, and tried to make it back. We were completely soaked, running through the downpour, but for some reason we couldn’t stop laughing! We must have looked just ridiculous. Of course, it ended two minutes after we reached the hostel—we should have just waited it out under an awning!

We stayed two feet from the Plaza de Toros so I asked the people running our hostel about bullfighting. Apparently, the opening day of the fighting season was Easter, so we timed our trip perfectly to see one. We asked about tickets. They laughed and said for Easter we could maybe find some if we wanted to spend 100 euro. We asked about the day after, and everyone we talked to said, “Pshh, don’t go, it’s bad bullfighting”. Bad bullfighting? I just want to see it, I’m not enough of an aficionado to know good from bad! (Actually, you can tell, we discovered; it often took them more than one try to kill the bull with the sword at the end (called estocada), or their banderillas, barbed sticks, wouldn’t be placed as nicely into the bulls back). Still, it was fascinating to be there. The Plaza de Toros is a big oval with rows of cement benches, and they cram you in there with all the other spectators, knees in each other’s backs and elbows all over the place—it’s very tight. Since it was “bad bullfighting”, it was either the season ticket-holder types or tourists like us; we heard every language possible around us. Of course, we had the ditzy American girls behind us that wouldn’t shut up with the “Awww, poor bull! Let’s leave, we should leave, we should protest!” Why did you pay 35 euro to get in, then? Or there was the guy who obviously had never seen a bullfight in his life but by virtue of being there knew everything there is to know about the subject and constantly critiqued everything. There were a few little old Spanish men near us who actually knew what they were talking about, and I got to use my Spanish on a couple occasions to get a better picture of what was going on.

There are many different stages, each signaled by trumpet sound. First a group of toreros wave the cape around at the bull to test it. Then a man on horseback comes in to stab the bull with a lance, I guess to weaken it. The bull charges the horse, who is covered on all sides by armor and is completely blindfolded. Then the various toreros try to stick the two banderillas into the bull’s back, further weakening the bull. Finally, the main matador reenters the ring with his red cape and sword, and makes the typical passes with the bull before stabbing it through the shoulder-blades and down into the heart. There are three main matadors, and each gets two bulls to kill. Once the bull is dead, they cut off the ear as a prize if the torero did a good job, tie the bull’s corpse to a team of horses, and trot it around and out the stadium.

It was spell-binding to watch, gruesome as it may sound. And the crowd reactions, such an important part of the fight, were just as interesting—I never knew what to do! There was generally a hush over the stadium, and you were shushed for talking. But every once in a while—and I never could pick up on the signal or event to start it—the crowd would “Ole!” together, or collectively made a “OOOSHH!” exhale of air, or even burst into cheers. Once or twice there was a clap clap clap, clap clap clap, that, when I asked the old man, meant that the crowd thought it was a bad bull and wanted it to be sent back and another to be brought out.

The expressions and movements of the toreros was fun to watch too. We had pretty decent seats, about five rows back from the front, although most of the action happened off to the side of us in front of the main gate. One bull did wander over and was killed right in front of us—it was amazing. I still don’t know quite what I think of the whole thing, but it was just such an experience! I’m so glad that I went, I know I’m not really describing it very well. I took a couple shaky videos for you to see, they should be with the photos on Flickr.

Sorry this one was so long, but it was my favorite and I had a lot to say about it! Anyone who is traveling to Spain, I highly recommend a stop in Sevilla; it’s beautiful and interesting and I had a wonderful time there!

Flickr photos for Sevilla:http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626489947105/

Life In Thess

While trying so hard to whip out these spring break posts, I’ve neglected what’s been going on the past couple days. Mostly I’ve just been trying to get back in the groove of everyday life. I unpacked, I added all my new postcards and posters to The Wall, have spent countless hours going through tons of photos, started working on some papers that are due this week and next. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I hardly left the apartment. I slept a lot. Watched Casablanca. Exercised. Everyone has been slowly trickling back and I realize how much I’ve missed them all—and just after two weeks! I can’t believe I only have a month left with all these crazies. All the guys have come back with weird facial hair. Everyone keeps telling me how tan I am, which makes me feel great. Other than that, not much is really new in real life. Everyone’s pretty excited about Osama being dead; I got an e-mail from the government warning me to be extra careful abroad as there is an increased risk of terrorist activities in retaliation.

I take the AP Exams May 5th and 10th. It’s a huge pain in the butt to take them here in Greece, and expensive, but not as expensive as a course at Vanderbilt, I guess. I have to travel two hours to Larisa, and since they’re early in the morning I have to go the day before and stay in a hotel. And, because the days are so spread apart, I have to do it twice. It’s just annoying when I have such limited time left in Thess, and so much work to catch up on!

Spring Break Stop Five: Mallorca

Mallorca, out of everywhere we went, was my least favorite stop. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t Spain—it was a cheap resort for British people, or at least the area where we stayed. It was a nice enough place, but it was touristy and beachy just like a million other places anywhere in the world. If I’m going to be in Spain, I’d rather be somewhere where I can experience a culture and food and atmosphere that is decidedly Spanish. I didn’t speak Spanish in Mallorca because they all spoke with English accents. We were foreigners not because we weren’t from Spain, but because we weren’t from the UK. All the restaurants offered fish and chips and shepherd’s pie with mushy peas. Kelli got her second piercing done, and the lady who did it had a really thick English accent. When we asked her how long she had lived in Mallorca, she said she was born here, and had lived in Mallorca all her life! We literally found ourselves in Little Britain. I know there are super beautiful, expensive places on Mallorca where lots of celebrities have houses, but where we stayed it was just a strip of cheap restaurants, bars, and souvenir shops along a decent beach. Kelli really liked having another beach stop though, and I have to admit it was nice to have a little downtime from our hectic schedule before jumping into the last leg of the trip. Plus, we got to do laundry—everything in our bags was beginning to smell, and it was nice to have clean clothes halfway through.

The way the part of the island where we were staying was set up was in the shape of a tiny little peninsula, only we didn’t realize it. Our second day Kelli and I walked along the water, assuming we were heading in pretty much a straight line down the coast when in reality we were following the coast back to where we started. After walking for half an hour, we found the coolest part of Mallorca. There was bar after bar packed in, each with a cheaper drink deal than the last, and a much nicer beach full of people our own age (whereas the beach by us was mostly families and old people). We thought it was the best thing ever and really wanted to return that night, if only we weren’t so far away….While walking, we saw a sign for Prince William’s Pub, 200 meters. We thought that was so funny, since they had one right by our hotel, and decided to see if it was owned by the same people. We started walking down the street indicated, and noticed another restaurant that was also by our hotel, and another…and then we saw our hotel! It was the most mind-boggling, disorienting, semi-frightening thing to ever happen; we thought we had walked really far away, when in reality we just made a huge loop. It took a while to really believe it, but finally we accepted that, like idiots, the super awesome part of town was a two minute walk behind us. We felt like we were in some bizarre episode of the twilight zone, where two girls think they’re on a simple vacation when in reality they’re on an island that shifts and changes and grows smaller until they’re slowly driven insane…The funny thing is that it happened again later, but on a smaller scale—we thought we were headed in one direction when in reality we just wound up by our hotel again.

We spent almost three whole days in Mallorca, and I was ready to go by the end and get back to the real Spain. It’s a little disappointing that we spent so much time there and so little in Rome or Barcelona, but it was a nice vacation from our vacation. The staff at the hotel was amazing and we really had the best possible time, even if we didn’t get as much sun as we had hoped. But not to worry, we left Mallorca for Sevilla, my absolute favorite place of all that I visited—more on that next post!

A couple pictures of Mallorca (or Majorca, if you spell it Catalun): http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelgoesgreek/sets/72157626613077138/