Thursday and Friday -- The Calm Before the Storm

So sorry for the delay in posting. We left Nafplion on Thursday morning and heading to Delphi -- beautiful little Greek mountain villiage that is home to about 3,000 people. On the way, we stopped and visited the Rio Antirio Bridge, which connects the Peloponnese Peninsula (where we had been) with the Greek mainland (where we were going). The Rio Antirio Bridge in an engineering feat beyond description, and our pictures do not do it justice. Nonetheless, I had to post a pic of Tony in his Mark Ingram/Alabam jersey with the bridge as an homage to both the bridge and one of our favorite players and teams. As for Delphi, it is beautiful, and way up in the mountains and home to millions of olive trees. We had very limited Internet access, and by the time I was able to get access to the Internet, Blogspot (my blog service) was temporarily out of service so I could not make a post. I had very little to report from Thursday anyway. We did a little sightseeing on the way to Delphi, had a nice lunch (more Greek salad for me) and arrived at Delphi to find our hotel had been changed at the last minute. Not a big deal as our new hotel had the best view in Delphi. I have posted a view from the balcony.

After a modest breakfast this morning, we left Delphi for Athens. We stopped to visit the Delphi Museum and some of the archaeological sites of Delphi on the way out of town. Sadly, two of the group, Sherry Walker and I did not make the climb up to the site with everyone else. Sherry did not feel up to the climb, and I have gotten sick with what appears to be a respiratory infection. Not fun, but I am taking meds to try and feel better.

After leaving Delphi, as we approached Athens, we discovered that a very last-minute switch in hotels in Athens had been made without our knowledge. Apparently, there is a large convention of physicians in Athens and they wanted our original hotel (Plaka Hotel) enough that they were willing to pay big $$$. So, Plaka Hotel decided it was worth it to cancel our reservation at the last minute and pay the cancellation fee and take the doctors over the students. So, as we were parked at the ticket gate the Acropolis, we had a bus full of students who THOUGHT they would be staying at a hotel in the CENTER of Athens near all the cool sites when, in fact, they had been moved to a hotel (the Metropolitan) on the outskirts of town beyond the reach of the Metro and far away from the sites. As the administrators yelled at travel agents on their cell phones, the students sat on the bus and sang songs. It was something to behold. At this point, we are at the Metropolitan (a 5-star hotel, at least by Greek standards) and wondering if we will be here the remainder of our time in Athens (my guess is: probably). The travel agency is sending a bus to take us the Acropolis and back tomorrow. The hotel provided us a buffet dinner tonight, and kids ate and ate. The hotel provides a free shuttle to the center of the city and back every hour, so we will probably rely on that for transportation while we are here. In other words, all it well. Except for my, everyone is healthy and having a great time. I am having a very good time, just having to work at it a bit with the respiratory thing.

I have discovered some interesting things, though, on this trip. Most of the students LOVE the cheese pie here, but many of them HATE olives. How can so many students hate olives? I just do not get it? There seems to be A LOT of egg bread here. Not sure why that is, but is delicious. Also, there are cats everywhere. We sometimes even hear them fighting outside our hotel rooms at night. Cats, cats, everywhere. Also, many people here get really upset when they have to make change. If you fail to pay with exact change they get really upset. There is pollen everywhere, and many of us are having allergy issues. The students tell me the shopkeepers love to give them "student discounts" to convince them to buy things.

Okay, that is it for now. Will try to do better keeping in touch.

Joanie

P.S. Tony FINALLY got this SPARTA t-shirt!!!!!