Kiani Akti Hotel Pórto Ráfti

... reconstruction done in the 19th century. Nothing compared to the trouble they went to to drag all this marble to the top thousands of years ago. From the walls, Athens spreads out like a milky, white blanket below and you can see the distant harbor at Piraeus from here and ferries skimming off toward the islands like water striders. I pick up a marble pebble and drop it into my pack, realizing full well that if everyone did this the Acropolis would be back down to ...

... able to be sculpted by the writer. Visiting the British Museum a few weeks (home to the Elgin Marbles - being the original reliefs from atop the Parthenon), they reserve judgment as to how the Parthenon came to be in rubble... opining that it was perhaps a little careless of the Turks to store gunpowder in it back in Ottoman times. The Turkish version we saw points quite heavily to a lightening strike hitting the gunpowder stored there, something it is ...

... was great. the kind of thing that was just ice, coffee and milk. i wish it was like that in Canada. I am not a big fan of the syrup, or cream or that sort of thing. Anyways, then we went to this place that had various fruits and nuts. Erin got banana chips, i got Prunes. I miss them dearly.... good ol' prunes... But then we went to a supermarket, and got some more shampoo and conditioner because we are almost out, and now we actually ...

Today was our second service day. On service day, all classes are canceled and the faculty uses us as free manual labor. Ha ha. We have to clean up the hotel and our land around it. This time they had several groups pick up trash all down the streets and down at the beach. I had the hardest job...I had to plant flowers around the hotel! :) It was a lot of fun! We helped DiMy (the director's ...

It was so good to see some new faces. It was good to see Luke again after we had been texting each other about our annoying travel companions (Allie for me, Meghan for him). We bought some vino and hiked up the Rock of Mars to gaze at the lights of Athens and the Acropolis and celebrate Chelsie's birthday.

Today was a free day. I explored Porto Rafti some, and had a fun walk down to the beach. It is becoming really beautiful here, with the flowers and leaves all coming out. It is kind of like Spring, but the difference isn't as noticeable as it is in Indiana. There is no melting of snow to let you know winter is over, there was never a time without green grass and leaves everywhere, but everything is definitely brightening!

Some people wanted to know what a typical day entails...so enjoy! The sun rises about 7 am. So some friends and I go running/walking around 6:45. Kevin has breakfast set out at 7:30 am and we can get food until 8:30 am. There are two days that we rotate through. Classes start as early as 8 am, and all classes are finished at 1 pm. At 1 pm we have chapel. We sing, have a devotional ...

Well I have been here for 6 days and I am loving it. Overall things are well and classes are keeping me very busy. We got to go into Athens yesterday afternoon and go shopping in the Plaka. I bought a few things but nothing of too much significance. We ate at a place called Sabbas, which had the most amazing gyros ever. The best part about it was that it was free. If you are ever in Athens, go into the Plaka and eat a gyros from Sabbas. Went to church over in Omonia square and ...

... come witness Greece driving. Classes are going to be very difficult and they require a lot out of you. I spend most of my afternoons reading outside for my classes. The food here is wonderful. We haven't had a true Greek meal yet, but we will tomorrow when we go into downtown Athens for the day and attend a worship service there tomorrow night. I had my first Greek language class today. It ...

... today. We also strolled through the Agora Museum and marveled at the artifacts recovered that bear testament to the Greeks' lifestyle and advanced system of government (for instance, they had on display a voting machine, a machine that picked unbiased juries, and fragments of votes made to fulfill the ostracism requirement, wherein each voter was required by law to write down the name of the candidate he felt would be most detrimental as leader to the city. The person ...