March 14

I got up early, yet again to make it to the kitchen first and this morning went just like yesterday. Just as I was finishing up my cooking, Emily came in and began her breakfast. After my oatmeal, I finished my reading and drank some coffee. I am getting very tired of Nescafe. I miss the Starbucks in Istanbul, though this is free, so that automatically bumps it appeal.
Today we were to visit the ancient temple on the island of Aegina, which required a train ride, a ferry ride, and a bus ride. We left the hotel at 7:45 in hopes of catching all the right rides. We rode the train just fine and were heading to the ferry, but some very odd man on the sidewalk kept pointing that the ticket office Krentz and Toumazu (also joining us for today) were in search of was across the street and back a block. No one really believed him, but just in case he was right, Krentz and Toumazu followed this man’s directions and went to that office. This was not the ticket office we needed, so we continued on the course we had been taking and found the right place. Of course, we missed the ferry ride by 4 minutes. If only we had kept walking! The next ride to Aegina was in an hour, so we just went to various shops and met back up at the docks at 10:00. I went with the group going to McDonalds. The Greek menu here is very strange. There is no breakfast menu, except muffins and a variety of different coffee drinks. You can order a burger (a Mc Tastey) in the morning. Yuck. There was also a Mcveggie burger and some sort of shrimp burger. I ordered a tea and stopped looking at the menu – too early in the morning to think about a fried shrimp burger from McDonalds.
We made it onto the ferry with a hoard of other people. The ride was pleasant. Sarabeth and I found two seats outside and we did some reading. After the ferry we hopped on the bus to take us to the other side of the island. This little hole in the wall island is beautiful! I wish I had gone here for Spring break. I don’t know if the week between my spring break and now would increase the activity on the island all that much, but this place was full of people and everything was open and welcoming. The bus ride was another issue. I’m pretty sure our driver hates his job because he didn’t want anyone on the bus to enjoy the ride. I got motion sickness after just a few minutes. We did make it to the site eventually, but because we had lost an hour waiting for that second ferry ride, we only got to spend 1 hour there.
This temple is the best preserved Doric temple in all of Greece. It is one of the few temples that was not coverted into a church, so much of its original interior structures are intact, including the two-storied colonnade in the interior of the temple. It was a gorgeous day and I wish we could have spent more time here. We did our usual scoping out of the temple, trying to figure out the plan, before we discussed the typical Doric features and the irregularities. Dr. Toumazu is more knowledgeable about temples than Dr. Krentz, so he spearheaded the discussion today. I like his style of teaching. He gets much more excited about the material than Krentz does, and I actually found myself speaking up more so than I have been on this trip. I think I have also gotten better about observing certain aspects – like today I noticed that all the exterior columns are made out of a single block of stone, and that there are two columns in antis on both the eastern and western ends of the temple.
We caught the 1:05 bus back to the port, but just as we were boarding, a group of 5 or 6 college aged guys asked us to take their picture. It turned out that they were Duke students! So even though I don’t like Duke now that I go to Davidson, it was still neat to meet other students from back home.
We had the option to either skip lunch and rush to the 1:45 ferry (which means we would get back to Athens around 3:30), or eat lunch in town and take the 3:00 ferry. Everyone thought it would be better to wait for the 3:00 ferry. Most of us ended up at this little fish restaurant behind a fish market. It was obvious that the fish was fresh, but the lingering smell didn’t do much to increase my appetite. I deliberated about the fish, but decided just to get a salad. I’d already had really good fish on Santorini and I needed to eat up the rest of the food waiting for me at the hostel. We leave Athens tomorrow, and I want to eat or save as much of my food as possible. Toumazu informed us that Aegina is the only place in Greece that grows it own pistachios and insisted that we buy some and munch on them during the ferry ride. I am so glad I did because they were the best pistachios I have ever had! I want to find some more and bring them home. Delicious!
So, after the ferry ride and the train ride, we made it back to the hostel a little before 5pm. It certainly an adventure day, travel-wise, but after sitting so much on the rides I wanted to burn off some energy. I got Christian to open up the top floor deck for me so I could jump rope rope and work out a little. Then I got some work done and had my dinner. We leave for Nafpoli tomorrow and I had to pack up my suitcase, but this time I wanted to free up one of my bags to carry my food – the beans will keep for another meal, and I still have enough pasta left for lunch.
I am a little torn – I cooked the last of my oatmeal this morning, which means that I didn’t buy too much and waste the money at the store, but I can’t have my favorite breakfast. I’ll just have to settle for toast. I have a little left of the loaf I bought. But, oh, I wish I had more oatmeal!