Day 33

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Day 33 (Olympia overnight Trip)

6:30am meeting at the docks, meant waking up at 6am, getting dressed, packing up my washup stuff for the overnight trip and grabbing some snacks for the trip. We all met promptly at 6:30am in the dark, since it was before sunrise, at the bus and loaded. It was a 2 minute drive to the ferry terminal at Killini and then we boarded the ferry, pedestrian style. Everyone brought the leftover pizza from last night, except I forgot my box in my fridge. Luckily no one missed the 7th or 8th box of pizza and what we had was enough. I wasn’t in the mood to eat so early in the morning, but after the hour and a half ferry ride, I polished off the last 2 pieces of pizza from Isabelle’s box. On the ferry we sat as a group across some benches and tables with chairs on the other side. I got a whole chair to myself and slept for a good 30mins while listening to music and tuning out the group’s noise.

We arrived at 8am and drove to Olympia. It was about an hour and a half drive. When we got there everyone was fed and snacking on their goodies from home. We parked just off the main road leading into the Olympic park, which is just off the road to the souvenir stores and restaurants too. We entered the park and spent a good 3-4 hours in Olympia.

We saw the Olympic running track, the democrat hotels within the park, the inside rinks for wrestling and running, the temple of Hera, the temple of Zeus, the Nike statue and then entire park! It was an amazing feeling to be where the athletes competed and where Disney’s ‘Hercules’ goes to the temple of Zeus to ask for advice. Of course the great marble statue of Zeus was long gone, so we didn’t see it and it is not in any museum, but the feeling of grandiose and Greece was all around. Some students ran the Olympic running track, where the Olympic flame is started for every Olympic Games. I took some pictures and got some pictures taken there, but I wasn’t about to run the entire arena in my barefeet like the rest. We took a group picture at the Temple of Hera and Isabelle recorded a video of me wishing my aunt a happy birthday from the Temple of Zeus. It wasn’t the coolest day, but we kept our hoodies on for most of the day.

We got hungry just before 1pm, so Isabelle and I left the park and went into town. We found a big group of us at a restaurant, so we stopped and ate with them. We shared a platter of meatballs (came with about 12), with fries and a salad dressed with vinegar and dill! It was super yummy and it costed us only 4.50 EU each, shared. After that we paid and Isabelle, Sarah and I left to do some shopping. I bought t-shirts for all the guys in my life (there’s too many jewelry stores and not enough things for boys), a little something for my sister and I even got a free postcard and eye-charm from a friendly jewelry store owner. We met back at the park entrance at 2:30pm with the group and made our way to the Olympia museum where all the statues, armor and pottery are kept that were found in Olympia. It was absolutely breath-taking and we ended the trip having snacks and playing show-and-tell with our souvenirs at the museum café.

After we were all shopped out, we went back onto the bus and headed to Pilos, another few hours or so drive away. We got to our hotel just before 7pm, unloaded our overnight bags, Lisa, took a shower and I went out with Isabelle to explore the town and find some snacks. We bought popcorn at a local grocery store, then found a pharmacy to buy a toothbrush, contact lens solution and shampoo because she forgot it all back in Poros. We slowly wandered back to the hotel and met up for 8pm. Our prof took us to his favourite restaurant in Greece, Gregori’s Taverna, which was just a 15 minute walk from our hotel. It was a charming little place filled with locals and we got the back outdoor seats. We ordered drinks (I had a Greece version of Fanta), got bread and oil with vinegar, then our prof took half of us at a time to the kitchen to see what foods they had that night and order straight to the chefs. My table ordered one of each appetizer and shared it along the entire table; eggplant dip, coleslaw, spinach, beets, eggplant with garlic (which was my favourite!!), tzatziki and humus dips. And I ordered, as an entrée, the baked fish with tomato, green beans, cauliflower and potatoes. It was delicious and I was SO full! Our prof treated for the entire meal, that came to over 400 EU and we all headed back to the hotel. A small group of 6 of us hung out in my and Lisa’s room for a little while, Isabelle locked herself out of her room next to ours, so one girl tried to jimmy the lock, which didn’t work and we ended up just going down to the front desk to open the door.

It was almost 12midnight when all the excitement died down and we were exhausted! I went to bed immediately, but Lisa likes to read so I’m not sure when she slept.

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