19.9.08

Aegina Island


(Me in front of the Temple of Apheia)

Hello readers! Last weekend our entire group went to Aegina Island for a weekend get-away trip and it was absolutely breath taking there. When we first arrived on the Flying Dolphin (the ferry that took us over) I immediately snapped pictures of the beautiful marina surrounding us. Although it was a bit of a task to figure out where it was we needed to go to get to our hotel since none of us had ever been there before, we were able to figure it out and everything went smoothly from then on. We arrived at our destination, Moondy Bay Resort, and I was filled with excitement. Our rooms, although a bit on the smaller side, were the right size for a weekend trip with three people to a room. Immediately Misty, Lauren, and I put on our bathing suits and headed down to the salt water pool that over looked the beach. We spent just about the entire day at the beach just relaxing and taking it all in.

Later around 9 or 10pm the group as a whole decided that we all had wanted to go out to eat. Instead of taking a taxi we had walked all the way to the other side of the island it felt like, but in reality it was only about a 2 mile walk. At the time I was not in the mood to take such a long walk, but once we were doing it I was so happy to be able to see the whole coast to my right. The feel of the scenery was much different when walking past it slowly rather than flying by at about 80 mph. (That's about how fast people go on that island!) Once we arrived at the town, we split up into smaller groups and picked a restaurant that we had wanted to go to. Lauren, Misty, Jessi, and I ate at this cute little restaurant in which the view from our table outside was the water. A little hesitant, I had ordered the Mousaka, and let me just say that was the most amazing meal I have ever had in my life. At about 5.50E you cannot go wrong. There was eggplant, zuccini, mashed potatoes, and ground beef in what is now my favorite dish. Not all of us enjoyed our meals, Misty was a little put off by the mashed potatoes that she had ordered. The Greeks do not use butter in anything, but use oil instead. I believe the waitor told us that "We don't use butter, you see, butter, no good, butter makes people fat!" We then trecked our way back to our hotel after staying out a little bit longer after we had finnished dinner, and just crashed.

The next morning we had gotten up at about 9:45am and waited for a bus to take us to the temple of Apheia. Anxious for what I was waiting to do, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to see. When we finally arrived to the temple after an extremely nerve racking ride up of a huge bus flying around narrow corners that were on the side of a cliff at about 80mph, I saw the temple standing overlooking the entire island. The view alone is enough reason to go up there, but there the Temple of Apheia stood in the most beautiful but somewhat intimidating way. I have never been up close to something so spectacular as well as ancient. It still boggles my mind that these great temples are still intact today. I went into the museum part of the temple and was able to see the pieces that came from the temple such as a statue of a man standing sternly as if he were the protector of the temple. Another man crouched down on one knee pointing his bow and arrow, ready for anything. I will forever have those memories embedded into my brain. Pictures will never do it justice for the feeling that you get when you are staring up at these beautiful structures.


As we were waiting to return to Athens, I went to a Kiosk to get some water and I saw some ice cream there as well. I impulsively picked it up to purchase it because it was so hot out, but then realized I had eaten way too much junk food already and that eating ice cream in the scorching heat is always too difficult because it melts before you are done. So I quickly put back the ice cream, and the woman running the Kiosk starting yelling at me in Greek. I did not understand what she was saying so I just raised the bottle of water and told her I only wanted the water. She yelled again and told me to come and pay. As I waited in line for the person in front of me to finnish their transaction I looked at the woman again and noticed that she was staring me down as if she loathed me. It was quite the interesting experience and a little scary.

Today we are going to go on a trip to Paros, Santorini, and Crete for ten days. I am unsure of what to expect but again the butterflies are stirring because of the unknown. Each time we go somewhere it has been better than the last and I have heard nothing but great things about all three of those islands. I think the best part of this entire trip is that we are learning about everything we are seeing, but how many people can say that they went there and saw it with their own eyes? It makes the learning experience so much more meaningful.

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