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Published: November 26th 2008
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Tinos Island
The view from the ridge behind our village. Notice all the terraced hillsides. And overall, greece was much drier than I expected. Wow, where do I begin about my time in Greece. My two weeks volunteering on Tinos Island were amazing. We stayed in Kardiani, a 45 person village on a steep hill above the sea. We were graciously put up in the community center which had a kitchen, three bedrooms, and a giant dorm-style room on the bottom floor, not to mention an amazing view of the beach below! I had so much fun hanging out with the group of 17 and even the work wasn't all that bad. We spent 5 hours each day clearing a 100 yr old path that led down to the sea. Almost all of it was made of marble steps that snaked down the steep hillside. We had an amazing view and a nice breeze to keep us a cool. When we weren't working we explored the nearby towns by cramming all 17 of us into a 9 seat van. Ya, we got to know each other pretty well! We also spent a few days down on the beach below our village and went into 'the big city' a few times. One saturday afternoon three of us climbed the hillside behind our village, hopping over the
The trail to the beach
This is what it looked like before we started working on it terraced rock walls to get to the top. Once at the top we had a breathtaking view of our village and the sea below. We also got a good dose of the wind god's wrath, who happens to call Tinos his home. At the top of the ridge we found a nice sheltered spot to have lunch then continued on the ridge line towards Pyrgos, a town on the other side of the island. We had so much fun finding our way through the dry bushy fields coming across old goat sheds and fighting our way against the raging wind. Eventually we made it down the other side and had a nice lunch in the small village. We decided to hitch hike our way home and after about an hours walk we finally got a ride from Demetria, the local bar owner in our village, it was perfect! The two weeks on this island working with this group of people will always be one of the highlights of my european travels. Everyone got along really well and we were always having so much fun! We had a lot of fun party nights where we cranked the music, jumped on the
working on the trail
yes, there are marble steps under there. The guy on the left was a local villager who helped us out almost every day. That one man equalled about 5 of us, he was pretty good with those tools! beds, drank ouzo and laughed all night long. The villagers on this island were so welcoming and often showed us there unbelievable houses. I found myself repeatedly offering to house sit next time they're on holiday. The last weekend of our workcamp the Kardiani villagers threw a party for us. They hired a band and brought all kinds of greek food dishes and the mayor gave a nice speech, thanking us for all the hard work and since most of the village was there, he add in a little village news as well! The party lasted for about 7 hours but would have gone on all night if we hadn't been so tired. We ate, drank, danced, and laughed the whole afternoon. It was wonderful!!
After the workcamp ended, most of us headed back to Athens where we spent a few more days together before everyone went their own ways. I joined forces with a few others and we went on two day excursions to Delphi and Nafplio. At Nafplio we hiked the 800+ stairs to a fortress on top of a hill. We relaxed at the top enjoying the view of the bay below before heading back down and
Getting my haircut!!
Rebecca did a great job even though we had tiny scissors that were extremely dull. In return, I cut her hair as well! taking a swim in that picturesque bay. At Delphi we wandered through the ancient ruins of the Temple of Apollo, had a picnic lunch with a panoramic view and explored the museum. Back in Athens, a few more people peeled off and headed home. I joined forces with two dutch, one french, one american and headed to Evia, the big island just east of athens. We stayed there for three days and spent some good time on the beach. One day we rented a car and drove to the other side of the island which involved driving over the islands dividing mountain range along some pretty sketchy dirt roads. We almost didn't make it back from our lunch stop on the beach because the car wouldn't make it up the steep, rut-filled road leading straight up to the main road. Everyone had to get out while I put the pedal to the medal and peeled out. Luckily our little car made it up! We had intended to go a lot of places that day, but since it took forever to get anywhere on these dirt tracks and we had used up most of our gas, we turned back early and
Evia
The beach we almost didn't make it out of. The steep switchback road is on the far left. Our car is the tiny red dot off in the distance just missed the sunset back in our village.
Overall I spent about one month in greece and I loved it!! Such a beautiful country with friendly people, beautiful islands, and centuries of history - I have never seen so many marble ruins in my life! I met some wonderful people and will always remember my time on Tinos! This is another country in Europe that I will have to come back and see some more of. There's still a lot of islands in the Aegean Sea that I didn't get to explore.....
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isaacs mama
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fabulous
Anna it is so wonderful to hear from you. It is so awesome that not only are you living in the trip of a lifetime, you are experiencing some of the greatest adventures. What a great opportunity and blessing. Thanks so much for sharing! Saw your mom the other day and walked through the new house. well the framing and such. It will be so awesome when it is done. Almost December and no snow yet! love you girl...diana