My second week of classes rounded up the end of this week.  On Thursday the Center hosted “movie night” and showed Never On Sunday, which has got to be on of the greatest prostitute movies out there.  It was old, in black and white, and moved between English and Greek (there were subtitles on the whole time, though) and is apparently a Greek film classic! In short, it tries to compare the logic of the Americans/Western societies and the passion of the Greeks.  Guess which side wins.  I highly recommend it!

Friday was a day not to be forgotten.  The Center provided an optional day trip that I, of course, took.  We first went to Lavrio, this old mining town by the ocean, and then moved onto the Temple of Poseidon and Sunio, a beach not too far off.  The Temple was, to put it mildly, breathtaking. These pictures still don’t seem real to me.  Fun fact: When Lord Byron visited this place, he carved his name into the sides of one of the columns.  It’s hard to see now, but you could certainly make out the “B” if you squinted really hard.

The view around the area was pretty dang spectacular, too…

Naturally, I brought my iPod, so I found a secluded cliff and sat and listened and wrote in my little notepad I carry around with me.  It was too beautiful not to be inspired.  I felt like I had my real first moment of peace since coming here since everything has seemed so fast and hectic all the time (save, perhaps, the coffee experience, but I even felt rushed to get that assignment done).  And then people began realizing that my cliff was an excellent place for photo opportunity, so I had to slowly migrate back down the hill.

We moved onto the beach of Sounio next, where I enjoyed a Greek salad at a beach-side taverna.  I came outside to find my friends asleep on the beach, though everyone got up to swim and sunbathe when the air started getting warmer.  I will say, there is nothing more exhausting than sitting on a beach and doing nothing. I did have some fun building rock towers as you can see below. If only my friend Ryan had not gotten his foot in the way, it would be an awesome picture.

We took a bus home and everyone was out within ten or fifteen minutes.  Around 11:30 that night, despite my exhaustion, found myself hanging out with a group of friends at the FloCafe, a little cafe/bar Imitou Street, the main drag of Pagrati.  They had all gone to see a dance performance, but the show got rained out, so off they went to enjoy hot chocolate and apple pie.  I tried my first Irish coffee and have to say, I believe I have a taste for it…

My roommates had gone out as well and did not return until 5:30 in the morning… completely drunk and in the company of one of the guys on the program who was also drunk.  After waiting up to make sure all the girls got home safely, and after pulling down our cot for the guy and making sure he drank some water before passing out, I went back to bed.  They all blew it off later like the whole event was nothing and that they were fine, but it does make me wonder about our American drinking habits… I still have yet to see a drunk Greek.

Yesterday, I hiked to the top of Lycabetus Hill, the tallest hill in Athens, with the same friends from the FloCafe.  There’s a Byzantine church at the top, and we had heard rumors of a spectacular 360 degree view of the entire city.  We wanted to take the little cable car up but could not find it and instead hiked our way to the top, which I was not too upset about but my companions were.  In any case, the rumors were true.  It was breathtaking.

Last night, my friends went out to the theatre again to try and see their dance show.  I had bought a ticket, too, so I went with them.  The show was at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus.  The outdoor theatre right next to the Acropolis.  Yeah, it was built in 161 A.D.  It was certainly a great Greek experience. Here’s a picture of it that I took last weekend…

We were going to go clubbing in the “gas lamp” district of Athens, Gazi, but between almost getting rained out again (there’s nothing more amusing than an outdoor theatre full of people holding umbrellas… I’ll see if I can snag a picture of this amazing phenomenon from a pal!), the show went really late.  I hadn’t really eaten dinner since I had been slaving away at my homemade hummus all afternoon before the show, so off we went again to the Flo Cafe for late night snacking!  I was in bed by 2:00am and slept in until about 8:45 this morning.  It’s homework time now, though I would love to gallivant off to a museum somewhere since they’re all free on Sunday… we’ll see how far I get on it all!

Next week should be somewhat routine now… classes… homework… my first Greek language quiz is on Tuesday.  Oh!  And I am indeed heading to the island of Syros on Friday for a night.  The weekend after next (my birthday weekend!) will be a trip to Olympia and Arcadia.  Somewhere in there, some friends and I are trying to plan a trip to Mount Olympus to hike to the top (how epic!), and I still need to figure out how to get to Santorini.  A five-day trip to Crete over October break is looking more and more like a reality.

Stay tuned!

P.S. Apparently posting links to music gets my blog shut down for copyright infringement. So no more musical interludes for now, I think… I like my blog too much!