The Chronicles of Berry: It's Saturdaaaaay!!!!

Our Saturday was nothing short of very very long. We had to wake up seven in the morning, which is never much of a Saturday tradition back in the states. We all pulled ourselves out of bed and met Dick downstairs to go meet our guide for the day and the minivan.

When we got to the corner of the street that we were supposed to meet our tourguide at, he was nowhere to be found at first. Then, a guy came up from behind us and asked us our names in as American of an accent as we'll hear while we're in Athens. His name was John, and after we met up with him we went over to what we thought would be a minivan. Instead it turned out to be a small bus that was really nice. Just like a bunch of things over here in Athens. Iris came with us as well, but this time I think it was just to tag along.

I slept for the first part of the ride to Mycenae, and on the way we stopped in Corinth for a bathroom break and to get something to eat and drink. While we were there we saw the famous Corinth Canal. When I tell you that it's a far way down, I lie to you not. From where we stood at the top of the canal to the bottom, it was about a 300 foot drop. Not the best for me, seeing as I'm not a big fan of heights. I had to get off of there pretty quickly needless to say. Now we were really off to Mycenae.

When we got to Mycenae, we took a look at the citadel of Mycenae. Once again, another grand site that shows off some of the rich history of ancient Greece. It's still kind of hard to get a true idea of what the place looked like since it's mostly grass and some stones now, but using your imagination does wonders to aid the process. There were plenty of different things that we saw, including the entrance to the citadel, which had to be one of the most impressive things about the entire site. As you walk up, you see two lions etched in stone above the entrance. These stones are not small either, they have been called "cyclops stones" because it is believed that only cyclops would have been able to carry them up to where they were.

After Mycenae, we went to Nafplios. Nafplios was actually the first capital of Greece (little history lesson vor everybody out there). This was an island that is what you think about when you see postcards and tourist pamphlets. Kids were playing outside, the sun was out and no clouds were in the sky, the water was as clear as I've ever seen it in my life (definitely a far cr from the St. Johns River). We stopped here and got some lunch at this little taverna that was barely noticed by anyone but John, who obviously had been there before. I ordered some meatballs and french fried potatoes for lunch and tired a little bit of the swordfish that Steve ordered. It was all very good and had me bordering on the edge of being full (which is hard to do. After lunch, we went over to a gelato shop which Iris insisted that we go to. I'm glad she instisted on it, because she treated us to what had to be the best gelato I've ever had. The lemon, mango, and strawberry gelato was quite simply amazing. It astonishes me to see the amount of care they put into making food over here compared to in the states, but that's for another entry.

After Nafplio, we went over to Epidaurus. This is home to the Temples of Asclepios and Artemis. The story is that Asclepios' mother died as she gave birth to him, so his goal in life was to help heal people. He thus became the god of medicine. The site that we went to was huge and had plenty of different places to go. We saw what used to be a gymnasium where athletes used to train, Greek and Roman showers (which are very different, by the way), and the place where families stayed if a family member got sick. All in all it was an interesting site. Now it was time to head back to Athens.

On the bus, I did as I always do, SLEEP! I got woken up a bit prematurely however as the bus we were riding in broke down in the middle of a horrendous traffic jam. Luckily, we weren't too far away from the apartment so we just hiked it on foot from where the bus broke down.

At night, we decided to go out for a little bit. We ended up finding an Irish pub right in Monastiraki Square. It was fun, we were able to find more "study-abroaders" from the states. It was fun to be able to converse with more people. I was scolded by one girl that I met for having a Yankees cap on (FYI, I don't like the Yankees but I do feel like that cap can be worn with most anything!) All in all it was a fun night, except for having to pay 15 euros to get back home.

Sunday was a true off day, all I did was sleep, study, and eat. Kind of like what I do in the states when I'm at school, except maybe not quite in that order. Anyways, until next time faithful "Chronicles" readers!