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!