As I sit in my hotel room in Cyprus wondering how to describe Greece, the first thing that comes to mind is astonishingly, indescribably hot. I’ve always loved warm weather and relished summers in Indiana, but this is a new kind of heat I have not yet experienced. Besides the hellish temperature, though, there are a lot of other noteworthy things about Greece:
-The architecture is an obvious first. We had a guided Acropolis walk that gave us a good base for a little more individual exploring later on. One of my friends pointed out how amazing it was to think of how any given statue is older than our entire country.
-After a long day of meetings, we celebrated Independence Day with a dinner in the evening, where we all sat together at one long table and enjoyed endless courses of delicious Greek food.
-We had a meeting and tour of the Accommodation Center for Refugees, which gave us a little insight into the life of a refugee.
-Staying in a hotel always forces us to go out to eat at least twice a day, so I got to try things like gyros, frappes, croquettes, Greek yogurt, Greek salad, and freshly squeezed orange juice.
-English is very prevalent, which is good because none of us speak Greek. (At least in Germany I could take a stab at sounding the words out, but I wouldn’t even know where to start with the Greek alphabet!)
-The metro went on strike our last day in Athens, so we had to adjust our plans and get a bus to our last meeting and the airport. The scenery was substantially better above ground, so I was fine with that.
If you’re anticipating going to Greece, I would recommend mass amounts of sunscreen, a goofy hat, and shoes with good traction.
Also—as we took the bus from the Larnaca airport in Cyprus to Nicosia and watched all the cars driving on the wrong side of the road, it was right about then that we all realized our British plug adaptors were tucked away back in Freiburg. So if you happen to be going to Cyprus as well, I’d recommend you stick that handy little implement in with your sunscreen, goofy hat, and shoes.
We’re anticipating triple-digit temperatures for our upcoming three days in Cyprus, which I’m not thrilled about, but I’ll take it over cold any day. Either way, I’m really excited to check out the area because it’s not a country I have a lot of background knowledge on.
Later,
Lorraine
