Persuasion Post

Everyone Needs a Get-Away, so Make Yours Worth Your Time and Effort

There are many reasons to go to spend your vacation in Greece, some include...

~Rest&Relaxation

Relaxation is never far away in the marvelous nation of Greece. Everywhere you look there is tranquility, whether it is sitting watching the waves or spending your time walking through the humble, welcoming towns. We enjoyed spending our time gazing upon the crystal clear waters that assured us that everyday in Greece was a fairy tale. Strolling down the starlit beach, it was easy to forget all the inhibitions that plagued our minds. (Pathos)You can leave worry behind when Greece comes into view. (We do not regret going off of liberty mutual commercial slogan.)

~Culture
Learning the culture through participation in breathtaking holiday services, as well as watching the people join together with holiday spirit truly touches one's heart. The communities in Greece are so warm and inviting that it feels like home away from home. To finally experience all the astounding things we had read about prior to our trip made all the hard work and planning worth it. (Ethos) Not only was it aesthetically pleasing, but the food was divine. Greece is so full of culture and history that even when you're not devoting your time to one of it's many museums, you're still learning about their way of life. The flourishing culture continued to astonish us more and more as the days passed.

~History
Gazing upon the ruins of ancient Greece demonstrated to us an understanding that the fundamentals of our education, math, science, architecture, and history, have roots deeply embedded in this wondrous place. Although the glory of Greece ended when it was conquered in the year 168 B.C. by the Romans, it's architecture still lives on today. (Logos) Learn without frustration! Visiting a few of the many museums in Greece fills you with knowledge without the pain of sitting through a lecture. You'll feel productive while being relaxed viewing the many artistic marvels.

~Beauty
No views on Earth rival the beaches that surround the islands of Greece due to the fact that the beaches are as beautiful as the goddess Aphrodite. But art does not only come in the sense of environment, it is also found in the thousands of year old sculptures and paintings that contribute to the culture of Greece.

~Adventure

Cliff Jumping at Navagio Beach

Imagine a death-defying leap from a cliff, or engaging in a high-speed paddle board race, causing the adrenaline to pump through your veins. Your breathing is heavy, your heart is racing, and you can only focus on this moment. You're on cloud nine and nothing can stop you now. However, adventure comes in many forms, and Greece has it all. If your idea of adventure is getting lost in the beauty of the Samaria Gorge, your home away from home is in Greece.

We would highly recommend a trip to Greece to anyone considering it. Not only did we enjoy learning so much about the history, but also experiencing the culture first hand. Everywhere you looked was another beautiful image. There were breathtaking views of the crystal waters from every hotel and the starlit beaches were truly marvelous. Greece is place you want to be because it has a little something for everyone. 

Day 14 - April 25, 2017 (Gladdie)

I was getting tired of eating hotel breakfast food for two weeks. In each hotel, it seemed to be the same thing over and over and over. Waffles, stale or overly sweet croissants, watery oatmeal, expired cereal, and donuts. The donuts were the only things that seemed interesting, so I loaded myself up on sugar as I waited for Jordan to get out of the shower. Hailey was trying to wake up Olivia was Abby getting dressed. Last night had been tiring with all the monasteries and my legs were still sore. I was both happy and sad to get out of Greece. Happy because that meant that I didn't have to walk everywhere, but sad because that meant the end of the vacation. As the five of us took turns to shower, we also packed up our stuff. As soon as we finished the museum, we were heading back to the hotel to grab our luggage so we could get ready for the flight back to Raleigh.
The walk there did a wonderful job repairing everyone's mood. We'd all fallen asleep around midnight that night and going back to familiar territory helped us relax a bit. We'd been in Athens for almost a week and the streets were starting to look familiar. We knew where we were going because the two really responsible people in our group, Hailey and Jordan, now recognized street signs.

Museum of Cycladic Art (History)
 When we finally arrived at the Museum Hailey and Jordan pushed their way to the front of the crowd for the tour and Abby and The Cycladic culture occurred in the Early Bronze Age, from around 3200-2000 BC, in the islands of the Aegean Sea. Most of their figures were female and ranged from complex cultures to simple ones. My favorite place was about Cycladic Society. The museum showed us about the cores of their society, how they spent their time doing leisurely activities, the social hierarchy, and their faiths and beliefs. It wasn't because I was a bookworm, you see, but because they had really interesting ideas. They had a lot of artisans, who were blacksmiths, potters, and sculptors, but no one knows if they actually made a living from that. They exported more things than they imported, which was rare back then, and their life expectancy was around forty. For men. The women lived to about thirty, which meant that, *shudders* most people in our group would die in less than a decade in that society. The museum was built on a collection of ancient artifacts and figurines collected by Nicolas and Dolly Goulandris in the 1960's.

Pan Hotel

We organized the rest of our stuff for the flight back. The five of us all had souvenirs, so now all we had to do was fit all of them in our suitcases. We ended up wasting half an hour doing everything we could to solve the problem. We tried sitting on the suitcases, pleading with them, screaming at them, and then finally giving up because we were running late.

Once again we had to split up in different taxis to get to our destination. I was with Jordan and Olivia in the first taxi, and we were the first ones at the Athens International Airport. After a few minutes, Abby and Hailey joined us. Together, the five of us managed to find our right place. Jordan was the one who asked people where security was. We had to get our luggage checked and we were using a different terminal.

Airport Terminals
We passed the security point easily. Jordan and Hailey had spent most of the morning lecturing us about what types of things we were allowed to bring on the plane. No fresh fruits (as if!) or batteries, or certain liquids. The line was long and we wasted a good forty minutes waiting for our turns.Then we had to find our terminal and gate. Ours was A2 and we found it because it was straight ahead from the security point. We had managed to get on there first and we all squealed in delight when we found out that we were sitting in the same area. I was sitting on a window seat and I was very pleased about that. It seemed that all the passengers were flooding in. By the time the plane was taking off, a good fifteen minutes later, the plane was packed. There were empty seats here and there, but, overall, it was pretty full. Abby and Jordan, the ones at the ends of the seats, were pretty pleased that no one was sitting next to them and that they were allowed to stretch their feet with ease.

Flight (Athens to Raliegh)

I didn't know how everyone else felt, but I was so tired after two weeks of non-stop vacationing. I didn't even had time to take advantage of the tablets attached the seats before I fell asleep. Thankfully, Jordan woke me up for dinner, which consisted of rice and broccoli, and interesting combination. I also got a Coke, which I sipped on while staring outside the window. There was a nice view of the setting sun and I got to see masses of ocean right under us. It was funny, actually. I disliked heights but I didn't feel anything but awe staring outside the window.

Day 13 - April 24, 2017 (Olivia)

Today was a day for sleeping in, and I really think we all needed it. Taking our time in the morning and those extra few hours of sleep made us more energized and happy. We got all our stuff together because we were going to the monastery complex today. The extra morning time was a trade-off, I realized as I looked at the itenerary. We had a fairly busy day ahead and it didnt appear as though we would see the hotel again until well after midnight.
On the way to the monasteries, we asked our cab driver if he knew any restaurants in the area that were good. He told us about an outdoor restaurant that a five minute walk from the Great Meteoron monastery. It was called Taverna Gardenia.

Wood items in museum

Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron (Culture)
As we entered the place where the monastery was, the main sign read, "the monastery suspended in the air," because it was right on the edge of Meteora, a huge high rock. We learned that there were six monasteries on Meteora, and this one was the highest, largest. and oldest of them all. Jay told us that it was established in 1304, and the rock it is built on rises about 2000 feet above sea level. As the tour started, we also got to see that they had a museum within the monastery. It featured wood-carved crosses and sculptures, and manuscripts. It was so cool to see how all this stuff had been preserved and was kept in such good condition. We also learned that the exquisite paintings on the wall were called frescoes, and were very common in art. It was so cool to explore this big monastery and see everything it has to offer.
The walk definitely did not disappoint in terms of looks. It was so pretty and trees shaded our path. It was a beautiful 65 degrees temperature, and everyone was enjoying themselves.

Greek Salad I ate from the tavern 

Taverna Gardenia (Food)
The tavern was beautiful, and the weather was perfect to eat outside. It convinced me that everyday was as pretty as this, and it made me want to stay in Greece. I got a greek salad, and so did Abby. The rest of the group got grilled sardines or anchovies. It was a really relaxing meal, and it had been such a gorgeous day so far.
After seeing the first monastery, we were so excited to see another one in the same complex. Now that we had an idea of what they entailed, we were more excited to see how the monastery of Varlaam compared.
Monastery of Varlaam (Culture)
We were going to the monastery of Varlaam next, To get there, we had to go on a narrow bridge from the main road. Inside, it is similar to the other monastery, with a lot of old wood and relics from back then. Their courtyards had lots of places to look out and see the other monasteries and the rest of Meteoron. It was another beautiful temple.
We were all so excited to fly to Athens now, because it was the capital of Greece. I still think that no matter how many flights we take on this trip, I will never get used to the excitement and how busy they always are.
Everyone was so excited about traveling to Athens next. It was the capital, and we knew it was going to be one of the most exciting and pretty destinations. We boarded the plane and found our seats around 6:10.

Flight to Athens
The flight was short and really pretty. The sun was just about finished setting, and the sky was starry and cloudy. It was so pretty here, and I would never get tired of these views.

View from Mount Lycabettus 

The flight went by pretty fast, even though it was only one hour. Every time I looked out the window, the view of Greece still astonished me and I never wanted to leave. Hailey and Abby were sound asleep, and I was sort of surprised, since they were so energetic when getting to the airport. The drive to the hotel gave us a feel for how Athens lives, and it was very bright in the night sky. Abby and Hailey were drifting into sleep, as the rest of us were too taken aback by the view to even blink. It was a lot later than we all thought. We had all had a pretty relaxing day, and it had flown by. Gladdie and Hailey threw their bags onto the bed and rushed out to see the view from our hotel. We were right on the outside of Athens, and could see all the city lights in the distance. We all looked up on our phones Mount Lycabettus, and particularly photos of the view. This only made us more excited to see in a little while. This trip has really made me enjoy the little things in life that are beautiful and that everyone should appreciate. Jay found out that it was over 900 feet above sea level. It was also a legend that the hill was dropped by Athena, and the acropolis of Athens would be built right there in her honor,

Mt Funicular (Natural Environment)
We were going to Mount Lycabettus tonight to see the stars and beautiful view it had to offer. It was a huge limestone hill that overlooked the city of Athens, and it was an amazing thing to see. All the building and streets were lit up in the night, and the sight took my breath away. It was a really great thing to see our first night at Athens, and it made me so excited for tomorrow. We all loved how high up we were and how it allowed us to see so far into the city. Hailey was worried whenever one of us neared the edge of the rock, in fear of us falling, even though it wasn't a complete drop. We did this a few times to mess with her. I will never forget this gorgeous view and how happy it made all of us. 

Arrive at 11:45 and get ready for bed: We were all quieter during the walk back, and I could feel my heavy eyelids starting to close after all the walking and traveling we've done today.

12:15 Sleep

Day 12 - April 23, 2017 (Abby)

We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel around 7am, like always, and then we all just went back to bed because we were tired from the day before. After a while of just dozing around, we finally decided to lazily get up and get ready. I looked around the room, and rounded up all my stuff. We packed our stuff up quickly as all of us were ready for an adventure, except for me. I took my time and eventually they had to drag me out the door
I was still sad that I wasn't going to get a lazy day, but then again, I had to remember that I was in Greece. Olivia tried to cheer me up by showing me the new Snap Chat filters and soon we were laughing out butts off. Before I knew it we were arriving at Corvcian Cave.
                                                      Corycian Cave (Natural Environment)

Corvcian Cave

We arrived at Corycian Cave by 9:40, and I didn't know what to think. Should I be scared of the caves, or excited to see them? When we reached the caves, I asked why we didn't get a tour guide and Jordan explained that the caves were self guided. This made me a little more scared, and I think it did the same to everyone else because we fell into a silence the rest of the hike, which gave me more time to ponder my feelings about this expedition. Upon arriving at the cave, we finally got something out of Tony. Croycian Cave was located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Taking one look into the cave, I knew to be scared because it was so dark. However, there was this little bit of excitement in the back of my mind from being able to feel the rush of descending into the dark cave, and also we had plenty of flashlights. The cave when we first walked looked a little sketchy because was just a dark hole in the side of a hill and also, it felt like it could collapse on us at any moment. After a little arguing with Jordan about being too scared and him calling us chickens, we gave in and made our descent into the cold, dark cave. In the cave, everything echoed, making it was hard to understand people sometimes. Even with this slight problem, I was still able to catch a couple things Hailey said about the cave. The cave was actually excavated by some French archaeologists in 1969, interesting that it wasn't a Grecian. Anyway, this 30 day expidition made by them lead to a lot of antiques and rare objects including a rare Neolithic male figurine, Mycenean shards, bone flutes, iron and bronze rings, miniture bronze statutes, 50,000 terra cotta figurines from the classical period and 24,000 astragoloi, or "knucklebones." In the 5th Century when the Persians attacks, people took refuge in the caves, pretty cool.
Karaouli (Food)

After being in the cave for a while we turned around so we could go back. Gladdie was complaining about being hungry, so we hopped in a car and began to drive to shops to get lunch. We decided on Karaouli for lunch, we didn't know what it sold, but we the smell wafting from the building told us we didn't need to know. I ended up ordering a Greek salad for the restaurant because I wasn't all that hungry as I had big breakfast from the hotel. I don't know what the others got, but my salad was good. Not the best thing I've ever had, but good. It was a quick stop at this place so we could drive to our new hotel to drop our stuff off.
Our next hotel was the Amalia Hotel Kalambaka, and at first look I knew it was going to be a nice hotel. After checking in and putting out luggage in our room, we were out again because we had one more thing left in the day and I was looking forward to a nice afternoon.
We drove to our next destination, Hoisos Loukas, quickly because our taxi driver was a driving madman. We told him to slow down several times, but he wouldn't listen, so we got there in a record time of 5 minutes. We all got out of the car as soon as it stopped, thanking the lord we didn't die.

Ceiling of Hosios Loukas

Hosios Loukas (Culture)
Hosios Loukas was more beautiful than I thought it was going to be, maybe I didn't want this to be a fast look. Upon going inside, we found that the inside of the building was even more marvelous looking than the outside as it was decorated with many paintings all over the walls and ceilings. The exterior had a lot of dome shaped roofs and a lot of browns and orange colors, but the paintings were one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. We flagged one of the workers down to try to gain little more knowledge on the subject and found out that the monastery was founded around the middle of the 10th century AD. We also learned that it was located near the town of Distomo and is considered one of the most important monuments of Middle Byzantine architecture and art. I found it really cool that it has been listed on UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, alongside the monetarists Nea Moni and Daphnion. Deciding not to pester the poor worker anymore, we let him go. I looked up online and found out from Wiki that, "... is the only church known with certainty to have been built in mainland Greece in the tenth century." Thinking about this, I felt curiousness roll throughout my body realizing how old this place actually was. After we walked around and admired the beauty a little more, we decided to get back onto the bus where they gave us amazing food like hamburgers. The meal came with the payment when we got onto the bus in the beginning. After that we went back to the monastery and explored some more. We saw so many more paintings that were just so beautiful. When we finished exploring, we got on a bus and headed to the closest stop near our hotel.
Amalia Hotel Kalambaka
When we got to the hotel it was pretty late, and looking at Jordan's watch I realized it was around 11, later than I thought. We didn't really pay attention to much as we were all just so tired. We rushed to the room where we quickly changed into our sleep wear. We all fell asleep after a long day feeling satisfied.

Day 11 - April 22, 2017 (Hailey)

Today I struggled to convince my body it was time to work and move again. Jay had to yank my leg out from under the covers to get me to shower and make myself presentable for the day. After we mulled through our morning routines, we headed downstairs for breakfast and to go over the plan for the day. Jordan explained the schedule for the day, but no one was really listening as my late awakening left us little time for breakfast.
After breakfast we picked up and headed out to Delphi's theatre. The walk there was full of picture taking and discussion of filters. At one point Abby and Olivia stopped and pretended to take a selfie to get a picture of the "hot" guy across the street. I didn't think he was that attractive and, um, hello? Privacy? Is that concept lost on our generation? Oh my gosh! Poor celebrates! They always have to deal with that! Ugh! I'm sorry my mind always wanders...back to the point!
Delphi's Theatre (Culture)

Delphi's Theater
Located at the back of the Apollo Sanctuary

We arrived at Delphi's theatre a little before 9. While Jordan was trying to get Gladdie out of her rebellious, "I don't want to be here" state, I caught parts of the American-speaking tour guide talking to the group before us. She was saying something about how a stone called Om-something marked the city of Delphi. I marveled at the amphitheater in front of me as I waited for the tour guide to make her way over.  When she arrived she greeted us very warmly with a giant smile. She started by informing us that the theatre's original alyout is unknown, but the cement seating came in sometime during the fourth Century B.C. The theatre was refurbished many times in it's life and its current state was the work of a 160/159 B.C. restoration. The theatre, like most today, consisted of three parts, the stage, the orchestra or pit, and the amphitheater. Katerina, our tour guide, then continued to describe that the stage depth of roughly 7 feet was often too small for the performances. Actors would often have to share space with the orchestra. I took a lot of pictures during the tour because, in my mind, every angle was unique and I needed them all. I brought my attention back for Katerina's final statements. She explained how Delphi's theatre is part of the sanctuary for the greek god of , healing, truth, sun, music, and many other things. The rock I heard her mention earlier, Omphalos, marked the meeting point of the two eagles Zeus released. In ancient greek Mythology, Zeus sent out two eagles, one to the east, on to the west and told them to fly to the center. Around Omphalos, the city of Delphi was built. I thought the story was extremely interesting and wondered for a brief moment what the history of Apex was.
We had some free time before lunch so we all rested at the top of the amphitheater for bit. Olivia and Abby took selfies while I took pictures of everything. My Nikon's battery was running a little low at this point so I decided to switch it with the other battery pack I dragged with me. About fifteen minutes before the car was supposed to show up we started heading to the meeting place. Our car driver seemed pretty nice, for someone who spends all day driving other people places. He didn't talk much but he appeared to be listening intently to Abby and Olivia's bicker about what is "quality music". We arrived at the Agora cafe around 12:35 which left us a little more than an hour to translate and decide something to eat. After eating we headed up to the bus station, letting Gladdie direct us since she had mapped it out while we were still in NC.
When we finally got to the bus station we found out it was running late. Of course, when we're early, the bus is late. I sat next to Jordan when the bus finally did arrive and I could see her head lulling as we rode up the mountains. I offered to let her lay across the seats which she refused at first, but by the time the bus arrived she was sprawled out and lightly dozing off.

Mount Parnassos

Mount Parnassos (Naturel Enviornment)
Lets just say that getting up the mountain was no fun. While I'm sure there was a bus up, we decided to only drive some of the way. Jay kept insisting that we need to exercise off the food from earlier, but in reality, I think she was just happy with the weather. It was always so nice it seemed here compared to home. After walking for a while up the mountain, we finally reached a rest stop were we we went inside to catch our breath and maybe capture some pictures. It was a great time to bring out my camera and take advantage of the beautiful scenery. After capturing a couple great shots, I headed back inside to find Jay with a handbook. Walking up to her I asked her what she was doing and she replied telling me she was reading about the mountain. Being the curious person I was, I asked her to enlighten me on some facts. I found out that the mountain is named after Parnassos, the son of the nymph Kleodora and the man Kleopompus. After Jay finished butchering the names and looked at me in expectancy, I just nodded and smiled as if I knew who those people were, when in reality I didn't. Looking back into her book I found out some more interesting facts. The elevation of Paranassos is 2,457 m and the easiest route to get up it is hiking. I guess Jay did her reading before as she gave me a look and said I told you so for making us hike up. Anyway, it is a mountain of limestone in central Greece devoted to the sacred god of Apollo. Today, the mountain has two ski slope centers on it and when they are put together they make the largest ski slope center in Greece. Getting back to some mythology, it says in the Odyssey that Pegasus lived on this mountain as well as it was a safe heaven for people trying to escape floods. Today, the mountain is mined for it's large supply of bauxite. Wanting to hear more I kept listening, but Gladdie had gotten bored and asked if we could continue up the mountain. Deciding we didn't want to fight, we hiked the rest of way we could before we got too cold. Even not being at the top, the view was amazing, and I knew I would never get used to it. After a couple of hours exploring, we settled down for dinner at the cafe on-site. 

Always wanting to be punctual, Jay pushed us out the door with plenty of time to catch the bus for Arachova, a small mountain town. It was beautiful! I loved how the small houses blanketed the mountain side. It definitely gave off the ski resort town feel.  

Car ride to Hani Zemenou hotel - arrive at 9:25 - It seems like we were non-stop moving today because almost as soon as we got off the bus we were waiting for our car to our hotel. Gladdie was pouting about how tired she was and how she didn't want to walk anywhere else.

We dragged our luggage into the hotel around 9:30 and settled for bed. Originally we had planned on just chilling and relaxing for a bit before bed tonight, but really we were all too tired to have a conversation. I don't know when everyone else went to bed, but I crashed around 10.

Day 10 - April 21, 2017 (Jay)

Waking up was harder than I expected it to be. I could feel the end of the trip looming in the distance, but I couldn't let it get to me. I just had to enjoy the now, which meant the fun of finally realizing that everyone was already up ready to go, except for me. I quickly jumped out of bed and rushed to the bathroom, I couldn't hold everyone up! As I was rushing around, I finally heard Gladdie yelling to slow down or I was going to hurt myself. After a little more time, I was ready to go, and due to my late start we had to skip breakfast to get to Saint Andrews to make my schedule. Oops...
The walk to Saint Andrew's Church was uneventful, other than Abby almost tripping a falling. We were on our way there when her foot caught on the slide walk, but luckily, Olivia caught her and helped regain her balance. I shook my head and chuckled at them, and before I knew it we were arriving at the church. Good think it was only a 15 minute walk, because I was ready to get started on the day.
Saint Andrew's Church (Cultural)

Saint Andrews Church

Just at first glance the church was amazing, the building was tall and had a cross that seemed puny on the top, when in reality, I bet it was 3 times my size. I take that back, three times Micheal Jordan's height he's a bit taller then me. It surprises me how many windows there are in churches. When I went to the Catholic Church in Washington, they had a ton of windows too, lots of stain glass steal ones. I might have thought the outside of the church was impressive, but the inside was even more impressive. The roof seemed to reach to the sky and there were a lot of paintings covering the walls. The most amazing thing to me in the entire church was the chandelier. After flagging someone down, I found out that the chandelier is wood carved. Asking for some more information about the church, I also found out that the church was built in 1979. Being a Noe-Byzantine style church, it was made to receive the great pilgrimage which occurs on St. Andrew's Day, which happened on November 30. The church is dedicated to Saint Andrew, the First-Called Apostle. The church was estimated to have cost about $5 million dollars to complete. That is a LOT of money. However, the church was worth it because of how beautiful it turned out. After a while of looking around and falling in love with the building, I was sad to realize we would miss our transit if we didn't leave, so I rounded everyone up and we headed out.
I wasn't sure if I liked the transit or not. It was loud, smelly and full of people, not my type of transportation. Even with all of these downsides, it was still fun to ride. Striking up a conversation with Hailey about it, I didn't realize that we were there when Gladdie started to pull on my arm. Checking my watch, I realized we were right on time, arriving at 10:30.

Patras Mycenaean Park, Some of the Tomb Entrances

Patras Mycenaean Park (Natural Environment)
I'll admit, at first I wasn't that impressed by the park, it just looked like a bunch of grass with holes in some places. Meeting our tour guide, who's name was Danny was weird. Not only did he have the same as my dad, but when he asked if I thought the park was beautiful I just kind of nodded my head and smiled. He smiled back at me knowingly. Soon we were walking across the land to what seemed like a hole. This hole changed my perspective if the Park entirely. The holes in the ground were entrances to underground holes, tombs. Danny explained to our group that the park was a cemetery and an Acropolis of a town. Personally, I thought that it was weird to have a cemetery and a bunker in the same places. But anyway, looking up after hearing of the tombs, I saw the Abby and Olivia were both curious and a little bit unsure of what to do. I honestly thought this place was awesome. It reminded me of my trip to Arlington Cemetery, where it was sort of sad but it was cool to be able to be there and pay my respects to the fallen soldiers. Looking in some of the tombs, my group found that none were the same. The were different sizes and well as different shapes, I never got it out of my tour guide, but I wonder how many tombs there really were. Looking around I could only assume a lot. One of the crypts still had the skeletal remains in it. I thought it was cool, but I guess the others were less into going in to touch it. After that tomb, we decided to we had to go because I could hear every one's stomachs growling. We thanked Danny for the great tour and soon we were on our way.
The walk to Flouskounis Food was quick  considering how hungry everyone was. I guess I was so sidetracked by the tombs that I didn't realize that it was already to 12:15. I was looking forward to lunch since we had skipped breakfast.

Flouskounis Food

Flouskounis Food
The worst thing about Greece was not being able to read any of the menus, plus not being able to pronounce any of the Grecian words. When we received the menus at Flouskounis Food I was disappointed to find that they had no English translations. Getting out google translate, I started to try to figure what I was going order. The waiter walked over about 1/4 way through of translating, so he looked at us knowingly and asked for out drinks only. I decided on a Dr Pepper, I missed sweet tea though. I wouldn't wait to get back to my baby Bojangles and their fantastic sweet tea. After a couple more minutes of translating, I was finally ready to chose what I wanted to eat. Eventually, I decided on XXL pizza 12 track cheese because everyone wanted to eat a pizza. Once the pizza arrived at the table I knew it was going to be fantastic just by the smell. The smell that wafted into my nose was so delicious that I couldn't help snatching a piece as quickly as I could and take the first bite. The flavors that exploded into the my mouth made me realize something, I could never go to back to regular pizza. The pizza was finished quickly with how good it was. We gathered our things and went outside to catch a cab. Finally hailing one we hoped in for a quick drive to The Kouls.
Driving there was interesting. Eventually I had to heads asleep on my shoulders so I couldn't go anywhere. Trying to play on my phone was not an option because one of my arms was being used as a teddy bear. After a little of trying to maneuver myself I gave up and just decided to go to sleep myself. Shortly, I was being shaken awake and we were going again.

The Kouls Store Front

The Kouls
I have no clue why we had to go to this one specific store, but Olivia and Abby were insisting on it. Upon arriving to the store I knew it was a clothing store. Shopping is not really my thing, so I just kind of walked around the store. I guess they chose this store because it was right next to the bus station. Wandering, I found out the store had been established on April 4, 2015, so it was a pretty new store. Walking up to Olivia I asked how she had found out about the store and she said her friend that had been to Greece before had recommended it. About an half an hour later Olivia and Abby had decided no a pair shoes from their pocket money. Personally, I had sate outside waiting for most of it chatting to Hailey who had joined me a couple minutes after I walked out. I was just ready to get on the bus so I could nap some more.Considering how close the store was to the bus station, we didn't have to do far. We were right on time for our bus, arriving at 2:45
Gathering our luggage, we gave everything to the bus driver who said he'd take care of it. I hiked onto the bus and decided on some seats closer to the front. This would keep Hailey and I from getting really car sick. I fell asleep after about 10 minutes of driving. I dream-pt of the flight home and woke hoping it would never actually happen. To my excitement, we were close to Delphi when I woke, so I chatted to Hailey about the Greek gods. I've always loved Greek mythology, but I don't know if I started liking it before or after Percy Jackson.
When our bus slowed to a stop I was already ready to go, I couldn't wait to see Delphi's theatre! However I got overruled by everyone else that we should got to dinner first. After a vote, I sadly lost to majority rules. We decided on a close restaurant, The Epikouros Taverna.

The Epikouros Taverna

The Epikouros Taverna (Food)
Upon arriving to the restaurant, I realized how awesome this was going to be. Apparently, you could sit on a back porch sort of thing overlooking the mountains due to the higher elevation we were at. After siting down, I heard my stomach growling, confirming how hungry I was. I was glad that I got convinced to eat first. I wanted to love Delphi's theatre. Staring at the view, I didn't realize that the waiter had asked for my order. After asking my again, it finally computed and I ordered water. Looking at the menu, which thankfully had English translations, I decided on the Grilled Chicken Fillet which ended up being Hailey and Abby's order too. Olivia and Gladdie ended up getting Beef In Red Sauce. After a little while of waiting, our food made an appearance. Not only did it look good, but it also tasted good. After enjoying our meal, we paid and shoot out like a bullet. We loved the food, but all of us were excited for Delphi's Stadium.
Delphi's Stadium

Delphi's Stadium

Having already gone to Delphi's Theatre, it was cool to be able to also see Delphi's Stadium. Compared to Delphi's Theatre it was huge because compared to the performances that had to be held at the theatre, the stadium had to hold competitions. After doing some research I found that it held many athletic and music events. Built in the 5th century B.C., it was remolded several times with the 2nd century A.D. one being built by Herodus Atticus. He financed the stone seating and the arched entrance making it only more impressive. The stadium holds 6,500 spectators making it great for the activities held there in the past and today. Walking around the stadium and looking over the sides of the seats I found it rests on top of hill. Doing some more googling I found out that the structure was built beyond the sacred way and the Theater. Inside the building, the track was one of the most cool things being 177.55 m long, about 550 ft., and 25.50 m wide. In the past, one time it was used exclusively was the the Pythian and Panhellenic games. Guess the games were pretty important if they could fill up the entire stadium.
To my dismay, we had to leave earlier than I would have liked to due to a minor stomach ache that Gladdie had received from eating too much food. I would never forget this amazing structure though. It will forever be one of the best things I've ever seen.
Checking in didn't take very long considering we got in at 9:45 at night. I was glad because I didn't want to have to wait any long to brush my teeth. After getting our keys, we shuffled up to our room and settled in. I opened my luggage and grabbed my tooth brush first. After finishing brushing I felt relieved to have fresh clean teeth and breath. Changing into my PJ's I was ready for bed.
I went straight to bed because of how tired I was. I don't know how late the others stayed up, but I was out like a light as soon as my head touched the pillow.

Day 9 - April 20, 2017 (Gladdie)

Somehow, everyone had forgotten to wake me up until five minutes before eight. Thanks to Jordan, who woke me up by placing a chocolate muffin in front of my nose. It ended up being my breakfast and we were out the door by seven, because Jordan said she had reserved bus tickets to Patras at noon. We had to two sites to reach and we had to cut off an hour for packing.

Mystras

Mystras (History)
As soon as we reached Mystras, we were greeted by an overly enthusiastic "tour guide" who spent most of the time advertising hand-soaps for a local shop we had passed on the way there. We did manage to get some interesting facts from Wikipedia after the man got the hint and left. After half an hour. The only things he mentioned to us was how it was very very old. And very very beautiful. Which we could all see, of course. The rocks were rough from the constant precipitation and there were a lot of ancient paintings with the paints chipped off. It had the charming feel of what I'd imagine Italy to be like. Charming old buildings surrounded by shrubs to give it the feel that it was plucked right out of the scene in Verona.
Jordan spent the next half hour telling us about all the historical significance of the town. Apparently it got mistaken as Sparta once before during the Ottoman Empire and then got restored in 2011. She kept on reading facts like, "it experienced a period of prosperity cultural flowering" or how this bloke, William of Villehardouin, ruler of "Frankish Principality of Achaea" captured "Monemvasia" the "last remaining Byzantine outpost on the Morea" in the 1200's. I kept on hearing the words "Ottoman Turks" and "Byzantine", so I supposed they played a role in the building's history. It also experienced a "golden age" and "attracted artists and architects of the highest quality". One truly interesting fact, though. It was the second most important town in the Byzantine Empire. The first being, of course, Constantinople, the capital.
(Note: Mystras has walls. The first being named "Chora" and the second "Kato Chora". The cathedral of Sparta was taken to Mystras and that was why it became the capital of Moreas from approximately 1450 - 1550. There was a philosophic school there in 1400. It's rulers were Emmanuel Kantakouzenos- 1348 to 1380, Matthew Kantakouzenos- 1380 to 1383, and Demetrios Kantakouzenos, 1383 to 1384, Theodor I- 1348 to 1407, Theodor II - 1407 to 1443, and Constatinos Paleologos- 1443 to 1449. In 1825, Albanian Turks slaughtered the population and abandoned it until it formed the part of the first Greek state.)
Temple of Artemis Orthia (Culture)
The Temple of Artemis Orthia was important to Sparta in the way of religion. Apparently that's what the brochure said. It was from a stall that close to the ruins, and their products were way overpriced. Not to mention that their customer service was severely lacking. We bought only one brochure and shared it among the five of us.
Apparently it had been built more than two thousand years ago and the other four got bored after less than half an hour. There were some interesting facts. Apparently young boys got flogged for initiation rites, and they also had steal cheeses to get flogged. Another version of the story was that they were beaten at the altar while a priestess stood by holding Artemis' statue. Huh. Apparently, in Sparta, you had to get flogged to get accepted in Sparta's society.
Orthias was the goddess of salvation and fertility and then vegetation. Later, it was connected to Artemis and there lots of bloody spectacles during the Imperial Period. Apparently, Artemis Orthia was also associated with the education of the Spartan children under 13. There was also a smaller temple below it which was almost three thousand years old.
Brunch
We decided to visit the coffee bar that was attached to the hotel. The meal we claimed as "brunch" as we wouldn't be getting a decent meal for the rest of the day. I'd seen scones in there topped with goat cheese or whatever Spartan addition there was. We managed to grab a few scones, cookies, and slices of cakes. The coffee shop was obviously trying to mimic Starbucks. When Abby Googled the Starbucks menu, they had just about everything, plus the oatmeal and chicken salads, which Olivia and Jordan got. They had added goat cheese and olives for a Greek tang to it, but it was just chicken salad, in my opinion. I was the type of person who splurged on junk-food, and had two chocolate scones plus a slice of pound cake along with "Tsoureki" to satisfy my sweet tooth. It was basically sweet bread formed into braids and it tasted amazing. It was fresh out of the oven and very soft and fluffy, yet chewy at the same time. It was so great that I bought another two for the bus and train rides to Patras. Hailey was trying for a cultural feel of things and got "Paximathia" which was whole wheat and chickpea.

No one knew where the bus station was. Jordan had seen it online and had gotten tickets without knowing where the location of it was. We split up into two taxis because of the large amount of luggage, except the two took entirely different routes to the station. Luckily, I was part of the group which arrived later, with Abby and Olivia, so I didn't have to ask strangers where the station was. Jordan and Hailey found it for us and we had half an hour to kill before the the bus arrived. It only arrived twice a day and we were lucky it wasn't at night, or something. There were lots of people at the station. It was sort of like the airport, which was shocking. I thought it would be more like a bus stop. There were shops here and there selling trinkets like dream catchers, which was weird. We were in Greece. Why would someone be selling dream catchers? All of us were pretty stunned to see so many people. I mean, Raleigh was a like a village to a county compared to the amount of people flocking around in Sparta. Most of them were tourists, but still. It was pretty daunting. We luckily managed to find seats after a family of five left, so it wasn't as bad as standing next to strangers. But then we realized that the buses were already here and had been for the past twenty minutes. And that it was about to leave in about five minutes, thanks to the intercom. Thank goodness we were in Sparta, where there were a lot of tourists who could only speak English.
Bus

The ride there was two hours long. Jordan seemed to have forgotten to get tickets close to one another. Hailey, Olivia, and Abby were the lucky ones. Hailey sat in front of Olivia and Abby- but at least she wasn't stuck to a random strangers like Jordan and I. Jordan had it easy. She was sleeping the whole trip. And me? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't fall asleep. I was sitting next to a skinny elderly woman who was glaring daggers at me while I was munching on the various Grecian snacks I'd found, staring at the foreign street signs outside the window. I was so grateful to get off that that bus....
We changed buses to get into Katakolon, where our next site was located at. The bus was a small bus, and we didn't have to pay with money. We had gotten the round trip tickets so all we had to do was show the driver the slips of paper and she let us on. There weren't any seating arrangements on there. Lots of people wanted to go to Katakolon, so we had to wait in a line for a bus to arrive. Sort of the like the buses from the mall to the state fair. We all managed to find seats together because we were the first ones on the bus. We all talked to each other about seeing another city on the way there, and swapped information about how we spent the bus ride to Olympia.
Katakolon Museum of Ancient Greek Technology (Technology)
There were very cheap tours around the building. Our tour guide was a grandfatherly figure who cared deeply about what he was telling us. He told us about the alarm clock, the automatic doors, and the movable theaters of ancient Greece. It was surprising how many of our modern technological improvements were so similar to those in the ancient times. The ancient Greeks even made robots and analog computers! There were 300 operating models and we got to see them all before leaving. Some, though, were ruined by time and the museum had had to make models of them or else explain them. The example drawings seemed to be carved from limestone, and they showed how Plato had thought of the alarm clock. Things like that. It was interesting in the way that it made you stand back and say, "Huh. I didn't know that." However, the tour guide seemed to have developed a cough so we left early to get a feel of the city while we could.
Katakolon Cruise Port
While none of us can claim to be fisher women, the port was beautiful. The waters were gray and we had stayed there long enough to see a cruise ship sail by with passengers eager to get on dry land. Then we decided it was getting late and took the bus back to Olympia.
The five of us didn't talk much on the way back to Olympia. We were all disappointed that we couldn't see the city, but we had a train to catch at three thirty and it took five minutes to get there. We didn't have time to explore Olympia, so we just tried to get as much out of the city as we could staring outside the windows.

The train ride there was tiring. I was sandwiched between two strangers, but they didn't give me the same nasty looks as the old woman. One was a seven year old boy who was sleeping, to the relief of his mother a seat back. Then there was another child to the right of me, around twelve or so, who kept on watching videos on Netflix like Harry Potter. Her mother was sitting in the row in front of us and she was sleeping. I was staring outside the window at the scenery the whole time and eventually I fell asleep.

The Pool

Astir Hotel 

We went to the hotel Jordan had booked online first. We needed the rest before the winery tour. The only reason we'd agreed to it was because we had nothing to do. It took a good chunk of money from our budget, but it was better than going back to the US and admitting that we'd let a good three hours go to waste.

Some of us took showers while the rest just stared dully at the windows, finding ourselves with less energy than before the five hours of sitting on a bus. At least, that was what I felt like. There was a pool, but not of us felt like swimming when the sun was about to set.
Caravel Patisserie (Food)

There was a really famous place in Patras called Caravel Patisserie. It was actually the only part of the day I'd been looking forward to the whole trip. There were lots of tourists in there, and we had a hard time finding seats. We managed to snag an empty one by the door and we got pelted by the cold whenever the door opened. It was freezing in Patras.
The shop sold ice creams and pastries, which Jordan and Abby didn't think counted as a full dinner, so they went to some of the grocery stores and bought salads and soups to get their daily doses of vitamins. Olivia and I had no such qualms and ordered masses of ice creams.I got Yogurt Maragkougia, which was basically ice cream mixed with yogurts and fruits. When I finished that one, I also go Stratsiatela, which was vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate. Olivia got Creme Brulee something that looked like caramel vanilla, that she said tasted fabulous.The breads were also amazing, really fluffy in the inside while the outside was coated with chocolate. At least that was what my Brioche chestnut tasted like. Even Jordan couldn't resist and got some Brioche cookies, which was a crispy biscuit coated with chocolate. Hailey was in between and finally settled for eating the rest of Jordan's salad while munching on the two types of Brioche.
Achaia Clauss Winery (Culture)

There were free rum cakes, which was nice. Apparently, as they had a lot of vineyards, which they kept lit at night, for the tours. The whole vineyard smelled like leaves. There weren't a lot of grapes because the harvest season was in Autumn, our tour guide explained. She showed us the tiny green grapes and dared us to taste it, which I did. It was so sour that I wasn't paying attention for the next part of the tour. I was too busy washing the taste from my mouth.They kept huge vats for the wine. That's what the second segment included, where the tour guide I wasn't very excited, though. She, our tour guide, did mention that some of them had been sitting in here for twenty years, waiting to be placed in bottles to be sold for extremely high prices. She showed us the most ancient date, September 14, 1950, and said that it would be harvested after another twenty years. Their most famous wines, she explained, were the red wines, and then listed every single wine type that they had sold the previous year. After that was the alcohol tastings. I wasn't very excited, though. The only alcohol I'd seen was cooking wine. They put them in tiny paper cups and were lecturing us about the aroma and how the sweetness collided perfectly with the tartness of it. I gave Abby the free tastings and was counting down the seconds to nine thirty, when the tour ended. I could tell the guide was doing the same thing. We were the last tour of the day.