Greek Dramas

Ok, so, it's been a week since I posted. It's been a very busy and full week, and I couldn't possibly fit all the stories I want to share into one post, but I thought I'd set down a few of the highlights to share while they are still fresh in my mind.

First of all, Naxos. Last Saturday we all got up at painful o'clock to catch our ferry out to the island of Naxos. It was the four of us interns, Kayla, Bri, Danae, and myself, and Lidia, the 18-year-old daughter of two helping hands staff people who we had met the week before. The biggest drama of the trip undoubtably arrived later that afternoon. We had arranged with Callie, a very kind greek lady from helping hands, to stay at her summer house on Naxos for the weekend, so after lunch in the port town, we set out. The lady at the bus office looked at our hand drawn map from Callie and told us that we could absolutely get to that location by bus, just take that bus to the last stop and it will only be about a 20 minute walk down the beach. Yes, that bus, the one that's leaving in 10 minutes, so you'd better decide quickly. With such confidently delivered advice, we felt no qualms promptly paying and hopping on the bus. Lidia even remarked that "Greeks walk slowly, so we could probably do it in 10 minutes instead of 20."  With great enthusiasm we hopped off the vehicle at the last stop, picked up our bags, and set off , making plans about what we would do when we reached the house.

We did not reach the house after 10 minutes of walking.

We did not reach the house after 20 minutes of walking either.

We did not even reach the house after an entire hour of walking along first the sandy beach, and the dusty and winding road that followed. Instead, we reached a supermarket, that appeared to be the first landmark between us, and the house.
All in all in took us two and a half hours of hiking, five or six different individuals or groups of people stopped and asked directions of, including a very helpful potato farmer, and one final slog up the steepest hill I've ever seen a road on before we reached our fabled destination. Poor Lidia was the only one to pack a suitcase instead of a backpack, and she forgot her water bottle at our apartment in Athens to boot.

My reaction:
The journey from bus to beds was long, it was grueling, and it might have been prevented if we had found the right bus/stop/mode of transportation in the first place, but we made it. Nobody fainted from heatstroke.  Nobody got mad and shouted and ruined the rest of the trip with sulking or hurt feelings, Nd we never even turned the wrong way, the distance between points A and B just turned out to be a lot longer than expected, but again, we made it. And hey, now it makes for a pretty great story, doesn't it?

Highlights from Naxos, because it wouldn't be fair to only include the speed bumps, number one was renting four wheelers! Clearly after our earlier misadventure, our feet were not sufficient transportation for Naxos, and nobody wanted to get on board another bus, so instead the five of us rented 3 four wheelers, or quads, whatever you weird people want to call them, and took off for a Saturday filled with adventures! The positive kind! We went swimming, we toured a castle, and we found some really great places to eat, and just as the icing on the cake, on Monday we had all day before our return ferry left at 6, so I got to climb a mountain (really big hill, but who's measuring) pretty much just because it was there. Rick, if you're reading this I hope you're proud. It was glorious, and we all pretty much passed out from exhaustion when we got back to our Athens beds at midnight that night.

Back in our normal stomping grounds on Tuesday we found plenty more to roll with. Intern number 5, our last, long awaited sister arrived at helping hands on Tuesday around 2 or 3pm. She has been a great sport about jumping aboard our metaphorical moving train, and didn't even get out of sorts over the fact that the first thing we did after she got there was pack up all our stuff, clean our Neos Kosmos apartment that she never slept in, and move back to our original apartment building one floor up. Not exactly the exciting greek life, nor particularly peaceful for the jet lagged and vacation weary, but she kept up like a champ.

Since then it's been a full week of ever busy work at helping hands, settling into a new apartment for good this time, and introducing Betty to the city. Today for example, after work we went to Monastaraki for gelato and shopping/exploration. Monastaraki (correct spelling pending) kind of reminds me of Times Square in New York. It's cliche and loud, a little bit overpriced, and totally centered around tourists, but that also means it's fun. There are a million shops with every kind of souvenir you've ever imagined and many more that you haven't. There are people everywhere from all sorts of countries speaking all sorts of languages to watch and listen to. There are street performers and hustlers and really genuine greek food, the stuff that every visitor has to try sitting at a crowded little sidewalk table with no elbow room. You can't stay there forever, it will make your head spin if you let it, but it also is one of the most colorful and alive destinations you can find, where tourists and locals jostle one another in the street to watch a pair of fire eaters or get to the best gelato place they've found. I love it.
Just this afternoon Monastaraki handed us a very... Iconic adventure that reminds me of the place it's self.  Kayla and I were perusing a display from the street, when a Greek man recognized Kayla's t-shirt referencing her college. He asked her about it, and said something about having family in the at area, and where did she come from, and how about me, where am I from. Indiana? Oh, my nephew studies at Purdue. You too? Small world! Huzzah for America! And with that he went on his way. Kayla and I kind of smiled about it, and kept shopping, but the best part was yet to come.
Later, Bri and I were trailing the rest of the group a bit when we passed this man's little t-shirt store. The man recognized me and shouted at me. "Hey Indiana girl! Come in. Let me show you a little piece of Purdue. Inside I discovered that he had an entire curtain made of faded business cards. They were all shaped and sizes, stapled together in strands and each one labeled with a state abbreviation. He showed me two marked "IN" including one bona fide Purdue staff business card. "These are all my family. I have family all over the United States."
Then he called Bri in, mistaking her for Kayla. "Hey, California girl! You come in to. Let me show you too." Bri corrected him that she was from Colorado, but by now the rest of the girls had circled back and they all came in together. The man was so happy, and such a fast talker! Where are you all from, he asked, and then he asked Betty, whose parents are Mexican, if she was greek. No, Mexican, she told him. Ah, I should have guessed, but you look like a Greek goddess, and then he actually pinched her checks! Then of course he had to make the full rounds with complements on all of of our appearances how beautiful we all were with face squashing or cheek kisses or something of that nature. It was kind of weird, but it was also completely and utterly hilarious. Maybe I'm biased. By the time we left he had called me his favorite and said that next time I came he would let me pick out one of his sons so I could be his daughter in law.
He whole thing was ridiculous. Completely and utterly ridiculous  but in an over the top welcoming way. He saw we were Americans. He loves Americans. He loved the fact that he got to talk to Americans and share his love of America with us, in a very very greek manner. It could have been creepy. Maybe some of the other girls thought it was at least more than I did, but as we all walked away, we all started laughing. Loud, ridiculous laughter at the loud and ridiculous thing that had just happened to us.
What can I say? Welcome to Greece.