The Tour of the Peloponnese

Aight so I just got back from touring through the most beautiful towns I have ever seen along the tip of southern Greece called the Peloponnese. We basically would drive in our huge bus to a town, have class and then spend the night there and then head to our next destination. The towns we visited were Corinth, Nafplio, Sparta, Monemvasia, Gytheio and Gerolimenas. Guys it was so awesome! The views that I saw from the bus can't explain it in a million pictures - it was just, amazing. But again I'm just going to log starting with the cities I went to first. Man, I'm really starting to like it here and the people in my class. We've definitely all bonded and it's going to be hard to walk away from each other in a couple days. But I'll start with my adventures before I start crying about leaving.

DAY 1 = Corinth day + Nafplio night 6/5/08

So I woke up at 8:00am this morning and went straight on facebook. We didn't leave Athens until 10:00am so I figured that I had time so why not. After washing my face I left the apartment and went to get breakfast at a local bread shop/bakery. I got a sugar covered bread in the shape of a circle - in America we call this a doughnut.
So after that we all boarded the bus. Our first destination of the day was Corinth. We had no idea how long the bus ride was going to take but in the end we were riding it for about 2 hours. The whole time I basically read in our "textbook" and listened to my ipod. Everytime I heard a song it reminded me of one of my friends back home. For example, I heard "Don't stop me now" by Queen and I though of Lindsey - haha, good song. There was a time also when I tried to fall asleep but my head rattled too much against the window. Everytime that happened it made me think that your brain was getting messed up from the rattling so I would jerk my head away everytime it happened. Basically I couldn't sleep on the bus. Our first stop in Corinth was at an archeological site for the gods Athena and Apollo. We saw lots of buildings and statues that go back to the 2nd century B.C. By the way I think Julius Caesar is known for conquering and establishing Corinth in Greece. After the site we got in the bus and traveled up to the top of this mountain. We all took pics and walked around. We were also trying to save our butts from falling down the marble. Then we headed back down the mountain and all went to lunch. I split a spanakopita and french fries with Shaina. The place wasn't bad. We ate in front of the archeological site. After that we all piled into the bus and headed to a vineyard/wine tasting place. The wine was sooooo good!!! We tried a white, rose, and red wine. We also got a little tour of the facility and basically how they make wine. After that, we headed to our hotel in Nafplio. Nafplio was the first capital of Greece until it was moved to Athens in 1834 because it emphasized classical Greece. We arrived at like 7:00pm so Heather, Lauren, and I went for a run because amazingly there was a really nice track right next to our hotel. I was in heaven again! We did 2 laps together and the I did a mile on my own. I decided that I wanted to wake-up early and do a run before class, so I went back and called Kelly because it was her birthday and my mom and dad just to say hey. For dinner, I met up with Alex, Julie, Steph, Julie B. and Sarah. I got a gyro with kabob on lagana bread. It was pretty good although the waiter kept messing up our orders. I'm telling ya, communication is so hard when your talking in two different languages. It gets frustrating sometimes. Then we went to get crepes. I think this was my first crepe ever. I got chocolate and banana inside. The chocolate was gnutella. It was alright but I'm not a big chocolate fan so I gave the rest of it to my roommates. Then I came back to the room and took a shower and went to bed.