Educational Rocks (and lots of them)

     I have been so busy writing reports, lectures, quizzes, and compiling roughly 150 documents that I still haven't managed to write about what I was up to in June. Guess what? For the first part of the month, it had very little to do with nursing. I manage to have yet another adventure with a friend from Bucknell as my last vacation while here in Rwanda. Similar to Scott, Marcus and I barely knew each other in undergraduate, but we reconnected at a wedding several years ago, realized that we both were living in D.C. at the time and would occasionally meet for drinks after work or a movie. He has been my rock during my time here in Rwanda. We text every day with very few exceptions and he always manages to make me smile even on the worst of days. Yesterday he was able to somehow fix an excel spreadsheet of mine so that a years worth of data wasn't lost. Like I said, he's my rock.
     Marcus had saved all of his vacation to take a month to visit Europe. His father's family was having a reunion in England (his dad is British) so he went to visit them, then went onto Rome with his parents, and finally 10 days in Greece. I joined him and his parents for Greece and it was fabulous (and timed rather well as it would appear). I had never thought much about visiting Greece and knew very little of the country, but I certainly learned a lot in my 10 days there. Marcus studied ancient Greek in undergrad and can read it and speak it a little. Apparently, the language has changed so much (mainly in pronunciation as over the years they have simplified the vowel sounds) that the Greeks today didn't really understand what he was saying much of the time. However, he was able to read more than one tablet or inscription, which was quite impressive.
     We all met at the Athens airport and quickly found our rental car and were off to Tolo. Tolo is a sleepy seaside town on the Peloponnese that has several ancient ruins nearby. When we arrived at our AirBNB apartment I was super excited for the view, which was pure water. And GORGEOUS water at that. We walked into the town and did a little grocery shopping, which was fun. I find foreign grocery stores to be interesting. Everything was in Greek with very little English and while I could figure out what most things were, I definitely was left a little curious about others. Plus the stores are small and not overwhelming (my mother left me alone in Wal-Mart at New Years and I almost had a panic attack). After dropping our spoils at the apartment we walked back to town and along the narrow beach to our apartment owner's sister's restaurant. It was a fabulous meal. We ordered way too much food and I ate more cheese than I thought possible, and it was wonderful.

View from Tolo apartment

Marcus' parents at dinner on the beach

     The next morning we headed for our first of many "educational rocks" (this term developed during the trip, because often I found myself staring at a pile of rocks wondering what on earth they used to be, however, they were educational or so said the signs). We visited the historical sites of Mycenae and Epidarvros. Mycenae (if you recall from middle & high school history class) was one of the biggest city-states and center of Greek civilization from roughly (and don't quote me on these dates) 2000-1000 B.C.

The famous Grave Circle A in Mycenae

The citadel is located up on a hill and you can see across and down to the sea on clear days. I assume, much like other ancient cities I've visited in the past (Pompeii & Ephesus) that the sea use to be much closer than it is today. The structures are in ruins, but it was impressive to realize that these great structures, walls, gates, and even impressive tombs, were built before the Egyptians built the pyramids.

View from Mycenae towards to hills

Checking out the museum in Mycenae that explained
all the education rocks we'd viewed

This piece of art was aptly named,
"ploughing by man and ox"

     Meanwhile, several miles away in Epidarvros there is a theater that has such incredible acoustics that if speaking in a normal tone on the stage people in the back row can hear you just fine. It was pretty impressive to me that that the Greeks figured out how to do this.

Me & Marcus at the top of the Epidarvros theater
(his mom is in the center of the stage in blue)

Also at Epidarvros there was a hospice building marked on the map. I was a little excited to go see it and learn a little more about ancient Greek medicine (something that hadn't been covered since I was 19 and sitting in the History of Medicine & Public Health at Bucknell with no idea I was going to transfer for nursing and eventually enter public health). I should have contained my excitement, because when we got there... it was quite literally a ginormous pile of rocks in a field and not much else. There was one particular rock that appeared it may have been an alter of sorts. We thought this would be a great photo opportunity of Marcus pretending to sacrifice me to the gods, however the moment I got myself on top of the rock a guard (that we had not noticed) started blowing his whistle at us and we missed our opportunity. After all the educational rocks we drove to another seaside town, this one a little bigger, called Nafplio. There is a huge fortress atop a hill there that Marcus really wanted to go to, however, there is no way to drive to it, it's who knows how many steps up a really really long staircase, it was easily 90 degrees and we were out of water. Thankfully, Marcus realized that it was closing in about 20 minutes, so we were saved from that climb, though I am sure the view was beyond amazing.

Quick stop in Nafplio

Beach in Nafplio with the fortress atop the hill

It was a tad windy

Once back in the apartment Marcus and I went down to the beach and lounged and swam for an hour or so. The Mediterranean is so salty and I absolutely loved it. Marcus and I noticed however that the economic downturn in Greece has certainly left it's mark. We walked past completely abandoned beach front hotels. In a way, seeing this is more depressing than seeing the poor in Rwanda. I can't really explain why. Perhaps it's because almost everyone in Rwanda is poor and yet they're still happy, it's just the way of life. I don't know. It feels different when you see something that once was successful and has failed. In Rwanda, there is still hope because they continue to improve. Greece felt pretty hopeless.

Best buds

Sunset along the beach

    The next morning Marcus and I passed out in the back seat while his mom drove us along the coast and across the bridge to mainland Greece. We were headed for Delphi, the famous site of the Oracle and you guessed it, many more educational rocks.

Temple at Delphi

So excited for educational rocks at Delphi!

Delphi was large. It creeps up a hillside with a stadium at the very top where games used to be held that were more important than the Olympics. The view as we climbed of the mountains was absolutely astounding. The clouds somehow seemed pouffier casting shadows across the valley and where the sunlight shown through was drenched in a spectacular golden hue.

Delphi

Temple of Apollo at Delphi

     When we finally reached the top, we were tired but man, was I educated. Once we completed our descent we walked down the road about 5 minutes to the Temple of Athena. Appropriately, the original and reconstructed pieces (made to be a different color so you can easily distinguish the really old educational rocks from just rocks) create this camouflage pattern in a sense. I say this was appropriate because if you haven't read up on your greek mythology of late, Athena was the goddess of war and courage (two of her many titles). Just as we started to leave storm clouds rolled in. Before long, we were soaked having left the umbrellas in the car, but we sought refuge in the site museum and enjoyed the recovered artifacts from the site. An hour or so later we were spent, so we headed back down the mountainside and checked into our hotel for the next two nights on the outskirts of the seaside town of Galaxidi.

Temple of Athena at Delphi

We had a brief siesta before our stomachs got the best of us and we drove into town for some incredible seafood. The owner of the restaurant barely spoke English and when Marcus tried to order something, she point blank told him no, because that wasn't going to be fresh as something else. We ordered way too much food and enjoyed every bite of it. The Greek cuisine doesn't differ much from Italian cuisine in many areas. They love their pasta and I was all too happy to enjoy fresh pasta and shellfish together.

     Marcus and I stayed up way into the night drinking wine, chatting about life and playing cards. Our matches of War and Egyptian Rat Screw were getting pretty competitive when we finally called it quits around 1 am. The next morning we were headed to a monastery that was suppose to be quite beautiful. Over Easter Marcus was baptized Catholic and so this combined two of his favorite topics... Greek history and religion. Hosios Loukas (Saint Luke) Monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage site because it happens to be one of the best examples of Middle Byzantine architecture.

Hosios Loukas Monastery  

     The monastery had a strict dress code, so making sure that women were in longer skirts with covered shoulders and men in collard shirts off we went. The switchback drive up the mountain was gorgeous though I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous as I noticed all the miniature shrines on the side of the road. I definitely told Marcus to slow down a little at one point and I'm sure he wasn't speeding at all. After a minor argument between driver and navigator (i.e.- Marcus and I) we arrived at Hosios Loukas. The surrounding hillsides were stunning and the photos I took did not do it justice. Before heading in to see we enjoyed coffee and juice in the courtyard area (pictured above). The breeze on this hillside was constant and had an incredibly calming effect on all of us. All we could hear were the birds chattering and the breeze rustling the leaves on the huge trees in the courtyard. Once then men finished their incredibly strong coffee we entered the monastery and the church. I was surprised. The church looked just like something out of Turkey.

View across the valley

GASP! I said it. Despite these two nations really not liking each other, they certainly have a lot of shared history. Byzantine architecture and art being one of them. Everything was gold background mosaics inside and the lamps hanging were straight out of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It was beautiful. Mrs. Ladd and I were both a little surprised to step into a room and discover the relic of Saint Luke there. It absolutely creeped me out, mainly because I wasn't expecting it and his deteriorating hand was a wee bit well, gross looking. We spent a lovely morning and I excitedly bought some honey to bring back with me to the States eventually. I have never been a huge fan of Rwandan honey and I love honey in my tea. The thing that interested me most about this monastery is that it is a working monastery. While they didn't produce the honey, Marcus bought oranges jarred in something and they had all sorts of things in olive oil the monks produced. It was really quite nice. After we were done exploring rocks that were still standing for the most part we had a leisurely lunch in the nearby town and then back to the hotel where I promptly finished my book poolside. We headed back into town for a late dinner where we discovered we could buy wine in plastic bottles. I felt as though I was in Africa for a split second.

Wine in a plastic bottle anyone?

     The only input I really had on the planning of the trip was related to a photo. My Baltimore partner in crime, Steph had left a rather large Lonely Planet book of every country in the world at my home in Butare. Knowing nothing about Greece I happened to look at it and told Marcus, "We should go here." Here, was an aerial photograph of a monastery perched on the top of a cliff. It looked pretty nifty I thought. Originally, Marcus thought that the area was too far north in mainland Greece, but low and behold, the next morning we found ourselves headed north up the mountains, back down into a valley with the sea stretched before us and into the plains. About three hours later we started to see the rocks of Meteora.

     Immediately upon settling into our hotel right next to the rocks we started to hike to the Great Monastery of Meteora. Meteora consists of 4 monasteries and 2 nunneries perched on these crazy rock formations that must have been formed millions of years ago by water and ice. Our hotel owner told us that the hike to the Great Monastery, which also housed a museum, was easy and we were actually amazed at how easy it was when you looked at just how high we climbed. Granted, by the time we reached the top we were drenched in sweat and really not fit to be seen, but we enjoyed the walk after all the riding in the car we'd done. We even saw a turtle (and beat him to the top) along the way.

Critter of the Day

Hooks used to hoist baskets of supplies.
Today they use gondolas.

The view from the top of the monastery was amazing. We could see three or four other ones just perched on these rock formations. I seriously wondered how on earth they built these things hundreds of years ago. They were so cool to see. The museum at the Great Monastery had all sorts of information about Greece, the establishment of the monasteries and nunneries, and a bunch of really old stuff that weren't rocks. There was artwork, robes and garb, old manuscripts, and great architecture to explore.

Taking a breather at the top of the Great Monastery to overlook another.

We are such dorks.

     Once done with the museum we stopped for ice cream and followed the winding road down to the nunnery that is pictured in Lonely Planet. With no museum at the other establishments, our stops were quicker just to view the chapels and churches and the artwork that was very Byzantine in nature covering every inch of wall, ceiling, and column.

By the time we were finished we were tired and hungry. With a quick stop at the hotel to shower and change we headed into the town to find a bite to munch on. Per usual, we ordered way to much food and enjoyed stuffing ourselves. I am fairly certain that had consumed one hundred pounds of cheese by this point on the trip. We enjoyed the sunlight as it faded in the sky and cast the rocks in beautiful light. After dinner we shared some wine and played whist. I love whist, mainly because it's bridge without the bidding, which I find complicated (particularly if I've been drinking wine). After several hands and probably a little too much alcohol, we called it a night.

    The following day, we were headed back to Athens. Along our way we decided to stop at Thermopylae. For those of you who have watched the movie, The 300 (which I have not but hear that it grossly over exaggerates the battle), this is the site of the battle. It was by far my favorite stop of the trip (do note that this last statement is drenched heavily with sarcasm in my head). For starters, we had difficulty finding the battlefield. We saw a sign for Thermopylae so we turned right past an abandoned gas station and shop. This turn put us in the woods next to what appeared to be a police station. As we circled around we found a number of locals in their speedos taking a dip in a spring that smelled horrifically of rotten eggs. We were confused. Marcus' father was convinced that there was a plaque or something that he had seen 30 years or so before. But instead we were staring at men in speedos who were looking at us like we were the crazy tourists, which we were. We decided to give up. As we pulled out on the main road we decided to turn right and see if we could find a spot a lunch. And roughly 300 yards later, we found the battlefield we'd been looking for 20 minutes. We walked up the hill, a rather small one at that, and found the plaque that stated that the 300 Spartans died in this spot. It was super exciting. Then we walked across the road to the large monument and read a little bit more about the battle before the tour busses took over the sight and we bolted. We immediately returned the rental car once we reached Athens having taken a little longer than we anticipated because the Greeks tend to not place petrol stations on their brand new highways and it was quite the detour to find some. Now we were rushing, because we weren't staying in Athens this time either. We were headed for Crete on the overnight ferry. Apparently, there were some really old educational rocks to be seen on Crete.

     I was a little skeptical about the ferry. The last time I'd taken the overnight ferry in Europe there had been practically no food and everyone got 1 key to the cabin, it didn't matter if you knew the people sleeping in there with you or not. I was extremely surprised. The Blue Star Ferry was huge, had fine dining, and even a swimming pool. We were super excited. Unfortunately, the swimming pool wasn't filled. However, we had amazing food and decent sleep and in the morning, we were in Crete. We docked at 6:30 am so the first order of business was to find some breakfast. We easily found a cafe with crepes and fresh juice and one of the most hilarious waitresses I've ever had. She was horrified that Marcus and his dad drank the bottom of Greek coffee and she chastised them like you wouldn't believe. Once done, we hopped a bus to Knossos to become more educated.

Peacock strutting his stuff around Knossos

     While the site of Knossos is amazing, the massive groups of tourists fresh off their cruise ships was not. We kept getting sandwiched between enormous groups of fifty or more people. It was ridiculous and made me a little anxious. I'm not use to so many people in a space for such a long period of time. I'm starting to feel that my transition once I return home is going to be harder than I anticipate. Anyway, Knossos is the largest archeological site of the Bronze Age. Pull out your high school history books because I can't remember exactly when the Bronze Age was, but I can tell you that it was a really, really long time ago. When the site was discovered it was in the midst of the time in archeology where reconstructing sites was important. So here they had more than just piles of rocks, they had actual rock structures. It was fairly impressive. Many of the artifacts taken from this site were in Athens so we were prepared to see said artifacts once we returned to the city.

     After we finished at the site we had a drink in town with Marcus' parents before deciding to split for the afternoon. Marcus and I walked to the beach. Along the way, we decided that we were starved so Marcus popped into a gyros shop and bought two of the biggest gyros I've ever seen. Needless to say, I demolished mine and the tzatziki all over my face was proof of the deliciousness. Marcus and I spent about 3 hours on the beach just relaxing. I read my book, he got sunburned, and we both went swimming. It was a perfect afternoon. We eventually caught a taxi back to the dock where we rejoined our group and experienced another fabulous dinner onboard. While Marcus' parents called it an early night, the wine was calling to us young folks and we stayed up late laughing over ridiculous stories.

Relaxing afternoon in Crete

     The next morning we arrived back in Athens and this time to stay. We got to our AirBNB apartment and marveled at the view of the city. The nice thing about Athens is that it really doesn't matter where you stay; the Acropolis is so high above the rest of the city that you have a spectacular view regardless of your location.

View from our apartment

Sadly, the temperature did not agree with us. The high was 95˚F for both of our days in Athens. Since we were all exhausted from the short nights on the ferry we ate a great breakfast and then napped and relaxed. We decided that we would go to the archeology museum, but it didn't open until 1 pm, so we had plenty of time to catch up on a little sleep. Plus it was already so hot that we were really enjoying the air conditioning. By the time we arrived at the museum we were ready to look at more artifacts and rocks. After about 30 rooms of very similar artifacts and statutes, we all stopped for a drink. After continuing, Marcus and I got a little goofy. Apparently our amusing photo shoots were not appreciated by some of the staff as they shooed us from one room after an attempt at bunny ears on a statute. Marcus finally admitted to being a little over all the history and rocks. But at this point, having been taken to so many sites, I insisted that we read every single plaque in every room because otherwise we weren't going to be educated enough. Marcus did not find this amusing as I spent the last five rooms of the museum reading every little fact and detail.

My favorite educational rock of all time

We eventually finished and made it back to the apartment with a little searching as we decided to take a different route home. But we made it. After showers, Marcus and I decided to have a fancy dinner together. We ended up in the touristy section of town right by the Acropolis and picked a cute little bistro to eat. It was a fabulous meal. Marcus had lamb and I had more seafood.

Street performers during dinner.

We took our time, enjoying the European lifestyle and after close to 3 hours, street performers singing and juggling, and one bottle of wine we started our stroll back to the apartment. We thought that we ought to be incredibly quiet as we reached the apartment so as to not wake up his parents, but being the party animals that they are, his parents still weren't home. The next day was our final full day of vacation. We played the tourists and went to the Acropolis. My dad had told me via FaceTime the day before that when he was backpacking through Europe after undergraduate school he once spent the night at the Acropolis.

"Sleeping" at the Acropolis just like my Dad did 45 years prior.

You can't do that anymore. The entire site is fenced off and it's quite the hike up to the top. But we made it.

Theater in the Acropolis.
The first several rows had chairs not just "bleachers."

Safety is Greece's number one priority
when reconstructing the ruins.

The thing about the Acropolis is that your tickets get you into six or seven different sites. And naturally, we had to see all of them. The day was spent in full sun exploring one educational rock after the other. Post lunch we mustered a little enthusiasm as Marcus' dad charged on. But by the time we reached the last site, we were done.

Refusing to go any farther.

Parthenon

Me and some really old and famous rocks.

     Instead of doing a fancy dinner we decided that the gyros place next to the apartment was the best choice for dinner and we had a picnic out on the balcony overlooking the city. A few hands of whist and some beer later and it was finally time to call it a night. The next morning we all headed to the airport and departed to our next destinations... Marcus back to Ohio, his mother back to Florida, his dad onto to Warsaw for business, and me back to Rwanda. We had a wonderful time and I'm really glad that I got to spend a vacation with a really close friend and his family.

Church on the Acropolis grounds.

Temple of Apollo

Lessons Learned:

1) Sometimes you're lucky enough to have friends invite you on family vacation to expose you to their funny and weird families because you are just as funny and weird.
2) People in Africa (and probably the rest of the developing world) tend to be happier than those in the developed world despite their situation.