Yahsu! That is "Hello" in Greek. Our tour guide, Cleo, greeted us as the group from the "University of Honors." If our Provost, Dr. Phil Oldham, reads this, he should know that we no longer want our own Honors College -- we now want our own University -- the University of Honors!
We found everyone's bags (no small matter), and took off for a two-hour coach ride to Ancient Corinth. During the ride, Cleo gave us a bit of background on Greece. We saw lots of olive trees -- they grow about 15 different species of olives here -- black, green, purple, but Kalamata olives are the most popular. Greece ranks 3rd in the world for production of olives. Yum!
The population of Greece is over 11 million, and 6 million of these people live in Athens. Of those 6 million, about 2 million come from the Balkan states, and others come from Poland, Bangladesh, the Philipines and the former U.S.S.R. Recent immigrants have come from Libya and Egypt. Virtually everyone who lives in Athens lives in apartment-style housing because Athens is a city that was planned to accommodate 1 million people, and is bursting to house 6 million. Yikes!
The population of Greece is over 11 million, and 6 million of these people live in Athens. Of those 6 million, about 2 million come from the Balkan states, and others come from Poland, Bangladesh, the Philipines and the former U.S.S.R. Recent immigrants have come from Libya and Egypt. Virtually everyone who lives in Athens lives in apartment-style housing because Athens is a city that was planned to accommodate 1 million people, and is bursting to house 6 million. Yikes!
We stopped on the way to Ancient Corinth to get an amazing view of the Canal of Corinth. The Canal cuts through the Isthmus of Corinth (Isthmus means "narrow strip of landed bordered on by sides by water.") The Canal separates the Peloponneisan peninsula from the Greek mainland. It connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea. It was built between 1882 and 1893, which was an absolutely amazing feat when you see it and think about all the rock they had to cut through to carve out this very narrow canal -- it is only 75 feet wide. Many attempts had been made to build this canal, but it was Hungarian engineers who succeeded. Previous attempts had resulted in a long 25-foot-wide ditch. So now, many in Greece do not say they are from north or south. Instead, they are from "before the ditch" (northern Greece) or "beyond the ditch" (southern Greece).I am anxious to tell you more about Ancient Corinth and our afternoon, but we have to meet the group for dinner. Everyone is well, the Greek salads are FABULOUS, and the weather is perfect. Tony will post later, too.
Joanie
Joanie
See, if you guys had me in Athens I could have been a translator 33% of the time.
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