Day 8 - April 19, 2017 (Olivia)

We woke up to an overcast cool day. Hailey reported that it was currently 15 degrees Celsius which is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit and was going to get to 20 degrees Celsius or about 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the day. We went down to eat breakfast and head out making sure everyone had all their bags since we were flying to Sparta later.

We were on our way to Loutraki Bay to go snorkeling. We had all never seen a game of it in person, we'd only ever seen it in the Olympics in our homes back in the states. Gladdie yawned and leaned her head against the car window and watched the sun finish rising. We played a few games of 20 questions on the way to pass the time.

Lourtaki Bay aerial view

Stand Up Paddle boarding and Snorkeling (Sport)
This was easily one of my favorite activities in this trip. I've always wanted to go snorkeling and it has been on my bucket list for so many years. The water was a beautiful shade of blue that you couldn't get back in North Carolina. Abby and I put on the scuba gear as fast as humanly possible to get in the water. We all lined up in front of the group leader to hear rules and safety precautions. My mind wandered to the water behind him and how excited I was. We also had paddle boards to our left for after, which I had done many times back home, and could not wait to do it over the crystal clear blue water. We stepped in the water that we learned was about 4 feet deep at the moment, and I looked down and saw my flippers perfectly. We all smiled to each other because the only one who's ever done something like this was Jordan on her trip to Hawaii a few months before. I will never forget how clear the water was as I ran my hands through. We walked deeper into the bay until it reached 6 feet and we were treading water. We had the chance to go underwater and see the wildlife. Various colored schools of fish swam by as the electrical colors mesmerized my eyes. We all went up for air and laughed and smiled at the beauty of the ocean below us, that we could see from the surface. The paddle boarding was just as fun. We all got them from the dock and got onto our knees at first, then graduated to standing to see the view below into the outstanding waters. I was very rocky when standing up, and we all laughed at the clumsiness I demonstrated, and we rowed to the beach to hang out and lounge. It was so beautiful, and I never wanted to leave. 

The drive to Chania International Airport was fun because we listened to Greek music on the way and it was fun to make fun of the driver for singing along. We kept asking what the words were to the songs, but he would only roll his eyes and smile. Guess he got this a lot. Soon we were pulling up the airport. We paid the driver and hoped out of the car.
Jordan was supper uptight about everything being perfect for the flight. I kept telling her to calm down, but I guess it didn't really matter cause that seemed to only make her more tense. After a while of waiting to pass security I was already bored and just ready to be in Athens. Once we pasted security it was even more boring because then we had to wait for our flight. To my luck, we were running a bit behind so the flight was here soon. We boarded quickly and soon we were taking off to Athens.
Flight to Athens
The flight to Athens was pretty short and easy. The only thing was that it was in the middle of the day, and that made me sort of tired the hour or so after the ride. While on the plane, I didn't do much except admire the view outside my window. I couldn't help but think about the plane ride back home to North Carolina. I knew I was going to miss this place so much. I also started to wonder if I was ever going to get to come back to Greece. I know in some places if you throw a penny in a wishing well, they say you will come back to the country sometime later in your life. I'd have to find one of these wells. After all this thinking I felt Abby tap my shoulder letting me know it was time to go. The long boring flight wasn't helped by the fact that when we got of the plane we got right into a cab and drove for an hour. I slept a little in the car ride to help, thank god for sleep.
We were on our way to the hotel to check in and drop off our bags and prepare to go to Sparti and grab some food. I was absolutely starving after the events of the morning and the flight here. When we got to the hotel we were pleased to find that the hotel wait wasn't very long and soon we were on out war way again. We were talking about places to eat on the way there, and we all wanted pizza, as we all love the food. The place, Remo Pizza, was recommended to us by the taxi cab driver that said that they had the best pizza around, and it was not far at all from where we getting dropped off.
The walk to Remo's pizza consisted of chats from our activities and how hungry for pizza we were.

Remo's Pizza (Food)
We were absolutely starving! We loved the food we've had so far in Greece, and pizza sounded really good to all of us. We all ordered the cheese pizza because everything else seemed to have black olives on them, and most of our group said no to them. I'm super glad we chose cheese because as soon as the pizza was set in front of me I knew the taxi driver was right about the food, it was going to be amazing. And it totally was!
Walking to the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil seemed kind weird. What kind of museum was on olive and Greek olive oils, I know Jordan does like oils and neither do I. I know oils are big here in Greece though. As we walked, I wondered what all I would find out about.
The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil (History)

As we entered the museum, the main sign read, "The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta aims to highlight the culture and technology of the olive and olive production, which is inextricably linked with the Greek and Mediterranean identity." and this really psyched us up to see the museum. The first floor was dedicated to the production of olive oil in the early industrial era. It was so cool to see the early machines developed in Byzantine so many years ago. The museum was meant to take you back to the food of the 20th century, when in reality it just made me want more food. Being the good girl I am though, I walked along with Hailey and listened to some facts about the museum. Some of the facts I caught included that the fact that the presence of the olive tree and the production of olive oil is supposed to be represented in the building. They wanted to show when these things first came into play in Greece. Not only this, the rare fossilized olive leaves, 50,000-60,000 years old, reside in this building. Now I thought that was pretty cool. Jordan thought that Gladdie would like to visit the more kid things, so we made our way to that section of the structure. Upon arriving I found out that they offer the kids a chance to visit three old olive presses, which include the Prehistoric olive press, the Hellenistic olive press, and the Byzantine olive press. I don't know why I found the kid aspect to be the most interesting, but I did. Even with all of this interesting stuff, eventually I got bored, so when we left I was happy to go to whatever was next.
We saw a lot of families while walking to the next museum. To us, all this stuff to see was so new and amazing, but there were so many people who lived and saw this stuff every day, and that came as a shock to all of us.

Clay works in museum 

Archaeological Museum (History)
Upon first sight, this museum was pretty cool. I was kind of bored of this day already, but I was willing to keep going for the rest of the group. Looking over at Abby I knew she was a bit bored too, but even with this we knew Jordan would get made if we acted to silly so we kept our laughing from jokes to a minimum. Walking around the building, Jordan decided to be out tour guide by pointing out some interesting facts. This is the earliest archaeological museum in the country. Jordan informed us that it was built between 1874 and 1876. We all thought it was so cool that we were in a building that old experiencing their history. I thought about how old my house was compared to this building, kind of gave me the idea that the roof might collapse on us at any moment. I shook that thought out of my head as we continued our journey throughout the rest of the exhibits. We saw the oldest art and history that Sparta had to offer, and it was really interesting. Some things that we saw were clay masks, mosaics, and even parts of pyramids. Personally, I didn't understand the need for clay masks. Were they sticky? I don't know but they were all very beautiful. I also wondered how long it had taken to make all of the stuff in the museum. Again, it had been a long day so when Jay finally said it was time to go, I was ready to go back to the hotel and sleep after a long day.
We were all so tired walking home, and my legs felt like they would stop working at any moment. I was so ready to sleep, even though it wasn't very late, but all these early mornings had been catching up with me.
Soon as we got back to the hotel, I plopped down on the bed and contemplated if I should actually brush my teeth and change my clothes. After a good 5 minutes, I finally decided it was worth it so I quickly did all the essentials and I plopped down and fell into a deep sleep.