My Big Fat Greek Birthday

         When we arrived in Athens we heard of potential transportation strikes and decided to take the dependable, but incredibly “touristy” Hop-On-Hop-Off double-decker bus. The bus went to 20 locations around Athens and Piraeus, the town we were docked in. My friends and I try not to stand out like tourists in the countries, but we were willing to let our pride go for a guaranteed ride. We headed into Athens and by the time we got to the Acropolis it was 115 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the hottest temperature they will allow people to go up to the Acropolis at. Less than an hour after we left the Acropolis it was shut down due to “dangerous heat” and many of the main sites around Athens were also closed. While we were at the Acropolis I tried to imagine what it used to look like. The last time I visited this site I thought that it had always been the white marble color. In my Art/Architecture History Class we learned that the Parthenon, statues and other Greek buildings were vibrantly colored! The backgrounds were typically red and the tablatures, sculptures and friezes were a large variety of colors. The buildings were meant to be admired from the outside and told stories through the carvings. In The Norton Book of Travel a passage from Pausanias’ “Guide To Greece” describes the glory of the statues, “The statue of Athene stands upright in an ankle-length tunic with the head of medusa carved in ivory on her breast. She has a Victory about eight feet high, and a spear in her hand and a shield at her feet… Opposite the temple is a bronze Apollo” (52.) What we also do not see today is the large statues that decorated the Acropolis. There was an additional statue of Athena that was 30 feet tall and made of ivory and gold. To prevent Athena’s ivory from cracking in the dry heat the Greeks built a reflection pool in front of the indoor statue and filled the pool with oils to moisturize the statue. The current status of the statues remains a mystery. Some say they are still intact, while others believe they fell apart and were scrapped for other projects.

Despite the heat, it gave me a new appreciation for the site. My friends and I were determined to not let the heat stop our day as we headed to the Temple of Zeus- at which point we discovered it too was closed down due to heat. As we walked away we passed an artist in the shade and each ended up buying a painting. My goal has been to buy a painting and magnet in each country. I’ve succeeded with the paintings, but after leaving the port in Greece I realized the store clerk never gave me the magnet I paid for-- bummer!! After buying the paintings we walked to The Panathenaic Stadium, the official Olympic stadium. It was built in 139 ad, quite a while after the first Greek Olympics, but hosted many of their later Olympic events. It is the largest marble arena in the world and has hosted the recent world Olympics. Due to the heat it was empty and we took full advantage of that! We got to run on the Olympic track and explore the ancient vaulted passages. It was my favorite site that we visited in Athens. To escape the heat we went to the National Archaeological Museum and saw some of the ancient Greek art that I learned about in class. We decided to call it a day and get a good night’s sleep before heading to Mykonos.

We woke up at 5 am and hopped on a ferry to Mykonos. I visited Mykonos with my family last year and remembered two things about the island: the pelican and the windmills, which I will get to later. Although we were traveling on our own, Semester At Sea arranged the transportation and hotel and did a wonderful job! We arrived at our hotel and were blown away by its beauty. It had the typical white walls and blue doors, but was beautifully furnished and decorated. It felt like we were staying at a private villa, with a pool overlooking the ocean. We took a taxi into town and began wandering the tiny, car-free streets of Mykonos. We became big fans of gyros, honey fritters (the Greeks refer to them as, “what donuts wish they were”) and crepes. We encountered a massive windstorm, but after dealing with Athens’ heat we happily accepted it. The windstorm helped us understand why there were windmills coving the entire island.

Before signing up for SAS I was worried that I’d be abroad on my birthday and not have good friends to celebrate with, but that was not the case!  In the evening we met up with ten Semester At Sea friends and had dinner to celebrated my birthday. We spent the night in town and ran into more Semester At Sea students. Besides being at home, it was the best 21^st birthday I could have asked for. We even saw the famous Mykonos pelican during our dinner! At the end of our night we waited for a taxi for over an hour, at which point we discovered there are only 30 taxis for the entire island and they can charge as much as they want. In the morning (of my actual birthday) we had a delicious breakfast with an ocean view and spent the day by the hotel pool. We then headed to the ferry at 6pm and found out it was an hour late. After an hour passed and no ferries arrived we were told it was going to be another hour. So, after 3 hours our ferry finally showed up and the passengers getting off looked green. They were telling us to “save yourself, do not get on that ship,” “catch a flight out of here, don’t get on the ship” or were making the Catholic cross over their body… definitely not a good sign. The ferry was sold out and it was the last ship of the day, so we couldn’t wait for the windstorm to pass. Before we boarded the ship we were being blasted by the windstorm and within a split second my ferry ticket was flying out of my hand and into the ocean. It landed on the last 5 feet of the dock and I ran faster than I thought possible. As I reached for the ticket a second blast of wind hit us and it flew into the ocean, 10 feet below me. At this point I let out a cry, my face turned white and the crowd gasped. I debated diving into the ocean, but in fear of getting crushed by the ferry I ran to the tour guide with tears in my eyes. Meanwhile I heard the crowd cheering and turned around to discover that a boat captain had seen this all happen and used a hook to fish out my ticket. I nearly kissed the old man I was so excited! That soaking wet, deteriorating ticket was the best birthday present I could have received. After getting a curious look from the ferry captain, I loaded the ship and encountered the biggest waves of my life. You know that the waves are bad when the crew is getting sick! We arrived back to the safety of our port at 1am, five hours after the expected time. Despite the crazy adventures, gigantic bug bights and the “cursed ship,” my 21^st birthday was one of my favorite birthdays. I’ve spent my birthday away from my family for the past seven years and whether on a mission trip, working at camp or on a Greek island, it always comes with a good story.

            Our last day in Greece was spent exploring the heart of Athens. We are now sailing to Turkey and will arrive on July 21^st.

            Thank you for all of your birthday wishes emails and posts. They brought the biggest smile to my face and made me feel like I was at home with my friends and family. I am officially halfway done with my voyage and am determined to make the most of every day left on this trip.

Xoxo Tori