This is part two of the week after the program with my mom. I'd recommend reading the previous post to get fully up to speed. Anyways, here's the rest of the trip!
For breakfast each day on the island, we went to this little place just outside of Kamari called Milopetra. It’s a fantastic bakery with amazing pastries baked fresh every day. The food was super cheap and so good. I might have shed a tear when I tried their bougatsa.
For breakfast each day on the island, we went to this little place just outside of Kamari called Milopetra. It’s a fantastic bakery with amazing pastries baked fresh every day. The food was super cheap and so good. I might have shed a tear when I tried their bougatsa.
Crushing the Milopetra pastries. So good!
Our first stop was the prehistoric site at Akrotiri. If you go to Santorini, regardless of your interest in archaeology, you must must must visit this site. It’s incredible. The modern enclosure is a low-profile, environmentally friendly, naturally lit, naturally ventilated building. And the ancient architecture is incredible too. It’s not quite ancient Pompeii level, but it’s damn close. The people here appear to have left before the Thera eruption, so there are no bodies.
The enclosure. It's huge, but only 3% (!!) of the site has been investigated.
The site had a massive sewage system with drains that pulled water and waste out of the city. And this was pre-1600s BCE. People in ancient times were way smarter than we realize and Akrotiri is a stunning example of that truth. Yeah, nutrition and medicine were not nearly as good as they are today, but their engineering and commerce were extremely complex.
We left Akrotiri and as one does on Santorini, went to the beach. Relaxing felt great. I was more tired on Santorini being lazy than doing five sites a day sun up to sun down travel with the Summer Session. While paradoxical, I think my body was just reacting to the lethargy with more sleepiness.
We ate on seaside in Kamari for dinner. My dad has a rule that “places with a view don’t have good food,” but I think that a Santorini Exception needs to be made because the food was fantastic. I had amazing seafood risotto and a fantastic coconut strawberry drink. Kamari is definitely on the quiet side of the island, which I much preferred. The traffic is better, the restaurants are less crowded, and going to sleep is much easier without lots of late night noise. The hotel was also super peaceful. It had a kickass inner courtyard with a pool that I swam in and some supremely comfortable deck chairs.
The final day on Santorini was just as good as the previous two. Our first move in the morning was to go to the museum of prehistoric Thera. The museum is a little dimly lit, but wow they have some killer wall paintings. The Minoan influence is really prevalent and they even have BLUE MONKEYS. I didn’t think I would see them again this trip, but there they were in the museum.
The blue monkeys in the Prehistoric Museum
The last thing we did on Santorini before winding down with a quiet lunch was to hike. We went to Imerovigli, a small town just north of Fira. We walked down through some gorgeous quiet hotels and small villas to a massive rock tower outcropping.
The goal: the top of the plateau.
We walked out to it, then around the back and up the side. The last three meters were a climb up a steep but toothy rock face. Being on the top felt so majestic. It’s a huge flat expanse above the beautiful water and cliffs. After some initial hesitation Mom made the climb up too.
Selfie from the top. The caldera of the volcano is behind us.
Descending the part of the rock that required climbing.
We walked back down after that and headed for the airport. Aegean Air back was just as good as on the flight out. We got back to Athens and wound up eating takeout sushi from a place in the Plaka. It was surprisingly very good. It think it’s called Koi Sushi or something like that.
The next morning we got to sleep in a little bit and started our day by going to the National Museum, where we saw all the famous stuff. It meant that I got to go back to the Antikythera Mechanism, which continues to be fascinating.
As we walked back from the National Museum, we ate the final gyros of the trip. There was deep mourning, but the gyros were quite tasty.
We hung out for the rest of the afternoon and then went to Kolonaki for dinner. We met Luke for pasta at a place I went with Sallie, Melanie, and Asia. The Spaghetti Sorrentina was fantastic. Seeing Luke one last time was great too. He and I were fast friends from the get go and I’m really glad we stayed that way for the whole session.
Mom and I went up to a roof garden to look at the lit up Acropolis before turning in. We got one last glimpse of the Parthenon, glowing like an orange sodium lamp, and then sleep.
After one last tasty breakfast at the hotel the next morning, we got on the train to the airport. While in line to check luggage, Mom received a text that our flight had been delayed, which would cause us to miss our connection in New York. I confirmed this with the Delta agent and she set about rebooking us. There were no more flights out of JFK, but there was one out of La Guardia, and our landing time would give us two hours to get between airports and get to Detroit. While not ideal, the other option was to stay in Athens, and that was not happening. Delta did give us each a meal voucher for €9.90, which let us get a tasty lunch. We then waited around for a while before heading to the gate and boarding.
The flight back to JFK was uneventful. In an attempt to tire myself out, I watched three movies. It didn’t work, but I can say that Deadpool was still funny, Batman vs. Superman was enjoyable until the Martha scene, and The Big Short is a movie you should go see if you haven’t. Upon landing, we breezed through customs and immigration. Waiting for us outside the airport was a car service, which my dad had arranged while we were aloft. The driver got us to La Guardia with about an hour to takeoff. Fortunately and miraculously, there were no lines at either luggage check or security. We made the gate with time to spare and were soon en route to Detroit.
We landed at around 11 pm and once we had deplaned and gotten our luggage and the car, it was 1130. We rolled into the driveway at approximately 1:30 am and I promptly collapsed into bed. In total, it was about 24 hours from leaving the hotel to getting home.
And that was the trip. I go back to Hyde Park August 14th, and don’t start school until the end of September. I’ve got lots of things to do, including brushing up on my Greek, writing summary and wrap up posts for the blog, starting preliminary thesis research, working out for frisbee, and seeing all my friends who are in Chicago.
The next post here will probably be an essay-like thing about session and what it meant to me as well as ways to improve it.
Thanks for reading.
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