I'm on a boat!... or I was...

These past couple of days have been a roller coaster of exciting activities as well as near mutinies. :) Sometimes, I think the ASCSA is a little too hard core for my taste, but no matter what we end up doing, I have to admit it has all been worth it. On Wednesday, we visited the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, which is one of the best preserved archaeological sites. Part of our museum tour was led by Jack Davis, the director of the American school. It was a fun site. However, the afternoon was filled with plenty of grumbling when we took an unexpected hike up a mountain to a closed site filled with spiders. What was worse was that it overlooked a fabulous beach at which we could only look longingly. What a tease! :) I guess it's just about that point in our trip where many of us are exhausted and homesick... and it didn't help matters that we hadn't had any breaks or lunch in hours! But the afternoon took a turn for the better when we took a boat ride to Sphacteria. (If you know the Activia commercial, it was the running joke amongst our group to sing the song, "Sphacteria!" or to call it "Bacteria!":) This is an island off the coast of Pylos where a major naval battle took place between the Athenians and Spartans resulting in a victory for Athens. It was also important during the fight for Greek Independence where a fleet of British, French, and Russians fought the Ottomans to help Greece obtain its freedom. It was very fun to stop off at the island and get a feel for the history of the place. It's one of those places where you can teach the history in a classroom setting, but it doesn't come alive until you see the terrain and you experience the place for yourself. I really enjoyed this venture!

Today was a slow-paced day. Glorious, in fact, because we had a lovely break at a beautiful cafe along the way. I think it was mostly to give us a chance to get off of the bus because of all the riding we had done on all the twisty mountian roads. :) If I hadn't been sleeping most of the time, I'm sure I would have been sick! But I must say, our bus driver, Iannis, is an impressive driver. He's also quite funny! Today, as we were leaving the Temple of Apollo at Bassae, we saw him behind one of the gates and he shouted out at the group, "I am Sparta!" This from a gray-haired Greek man who hardly speaks any English. :)

One of the most memorable moments of these past few days came from my classmate, Josh. Josh can be pretty loud and goofy, but he is one of the most entertaining people in our group. He always has something funny to say. I met Josh the first night I was in Greece because we stayed at the same hostel, so I've known him longest of anyone here. He's pretty fun and he has enough energy for all of us combined. He's honest and sometimes sweet, but he always says what he thinks... and yesterday was one of them. Here's the set up: normally before we leave to drive somewhere, our professor does a count to make sure we are all there and then he says in Greek, "endaxi, pome!" which means, "okay, let's go!". So yesterday, after we had just been on that long grueling hike and everyone was back on the bus ready to go... (all except our professor and the bus driver), Josh stands up and shouts out at the top of his lungs, "endaxi, pome!" which was out of the blue and pretty hilarious... but what was even funnier, was that Iannis shouts back, "no pome!" :) (I guess it's one of those stories, where you had to be there, but I thought it was funny.)

We'll be Olympia for the next couple of days and tomorrow we'll have a racing rematch at the ancient Olympic stadium. It should be fun! I'll keep you posted on the results!