I went out of central Athens to find the National Arccheologial Museum, very neat and crowded with Italian tour groups. The I drank some gritty Greek coffee, got lost (reading bus signs in Greek is not an easy task), and met up with Jeana to do some last minute shopping before running off to the airport.
My flight was delayed, and I met some nice Canadian guys while waiting around, and I ended up showing them around Rome the next day! But that is another adventure.
Later, really cheap yummy gyros on Souvlaki Row
Then the hike up to the Acropolis! It was amazing, you could see all of Athens sprawling out...
For dinner, a great place Rick Steves recommended, 12 shared dishes, ouzo and dessert.
No cars on the island, only donkies!
After a lovely lovely day, back to Athens to explore the Plaka and have dinner with everyone.
Later, I went to the International folk narrative research conference cocktail party, where Jeana and her friends met up with a professor friend.
Our hostel was right near the brand new Acropolis Museum, where they put on a great light show at night, animated smiling Kore...
Athens is a very interesting city. It reminded me of a very ancient LA...it has a lot of secrets.
It is also the home of one of the largest ancient theaters. We tested out it's acoustics with singing and jokes. It was pretty amazing how far sound traveled with no help from technology.
We returned to Nafplio for a summer storm, and then for dinner. We got ouzo accompanied by tiny fried fish, along with olives, giant beans, grilled feta, sausage, tomato and cucumber salad, and more ouzo!
A perfect last night in Nafplio!
We went to the beach upon returning to Nafplio! The water was so refreshing, even if the waves were a little rough.
For dinner that night, we started with the most amazing olives, olive oil and toasted bread.
The infamous Greek Salad.
Jeana and I shared moussaka and some kind of pig skewer, and our waiter kept supplying our table with free red wine! Very tasty.
There were a lot of steps.
The views were amazing. The ocean was so blue and seemed to go on forever...
After that hike, we were all exhausted and rested for most of the day. I explored and discovered a beach! The Mediterranean is so nice...And for dinner we had the fish special:
yum!
After a long day of travel from Florence to Rome to Athens to Nafplion on the Peloponnese peninsula, I arrived just in time for dinner. We had dolmades--grape leaves stuffed with meat and rice, stuffed peppers...some wine of course...
My travel companions, the folklorists! Adam, Linda, Kristi, and Jeana
And my moussaka. Delicious!
We walked around Syntagma square afterward. Even in this tiny tiny town, everything was open very late, it was so beautiful...
The Exhibition Hall:
The Russian pavilion was pretty neat, with a room of black lit crowded frescoes and the theme of "victory over the future."
The International Exhibition hall was immense and maze-like. We got lost, but saw a lot of cool stuff
And we spent some time wandering the streets of Venice of course! Good ol' San Marco full of pigeons...
Adventures continued with catching 3 am trains to get back to Florence, huddling in the cold, and watching bum fights. But that's another story!
Wonderful sandwiches!! at Noe
Aladdin pants and hammocks!
Dinner with la Marsha at Pizzaiolo....soooooo good. Like pizza straight from Napoli.
And breakfast with Tony! Definitely the best way to start the day.
Allora, now, I'm trying to start and finish paintings....say more goodbyes, and manage to get more sleep!!
Our lovely dinner..
Followed by spumante in Santa Croce
...and karaoke, which I usually can't stand. but it was really fun this time!
So now that finals are over CSU Firenze is officially finished. People have already started leaving, although most of my friends are staying at least until the end of the weekend or maybe even a little longer. Our apartment will soon become a refuge/hotel for now homeless students as they complete their travels. But all us art kids are still here another few weeks finishing up exams at the Accademia! Speaking of which, I have to go finish my sugar lift for my second to last etching!
