Daniel Greece, (program of education for make benefit beautiful nation of Australia)

Day 27

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:28:00 GMT

Today stared off the same as yesterday, breakfast then off to Boza for a swim, which again was amazing, before going back to Theo Vasili’s house for lunch. After lunch we went for a walk around the village before going to Theo Vasili’s sisters house for dinner which was the first time I had eaten lamb in Greece, it was superb. We had a relatively early night because we were heading to Yiayia’s village, Agio Vasili, the next day.

Day 28

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:28:00 GMT

The drive to Agio Vasili took about 2.5 hrs with a stop for coffee along the way. I went in Thanasi’s car and along the way we stopped at a monastery called Panageia Elena. They were in the process of doing some rennos on it but it was still amazing to see, dug into the side of a mountain.

We got to Agio Vasili at around lunch time. We checked out Papou Thanasi’s house and what Theo Nicko had done with it. One thing I really liked was that they had hung up or displayed all of the old things in the house, like Papou Thanasi’s stick, the sewing machine, ironing board and many other things. We went out for lunch at a little restaurant and had lamb chops and chips, among other things, Thanasi had been going on about how Agio Vasili has the best lamb chop in the world. They were tasty, but I mean they weren’t as good as one of our barbecues…

After lunch I took some more time to explore the house and see what I could find. After a little while we all left to head to Palio Hori, Papou’s village, it’s only 7 kms away. When we got there we asked some of the locals where Thodoro Nickolokakis’ house is so we could go and surprise him and Nick. The look on Nick’s face was pretty good when we all rocked up at his door. There house is also coming along really nicely, Pep is going to live like a king when he goes over.

Nick showed us where Papou’s house is and one of Papou’s first cousins came to unlock it for us. The house wasn’t in too bad shape, still very much intact but Nick aid it wa starting to get one or two holes in the roof. I had a look all around the house and found some pretty special souvenirs to take home, like a letter to Dimitri from Papou in 1990, Papou’s mum’s glasses and a little icon of Saint George.

We then all headed to the main square of the village, sat down, had a drink and a chat and then left for Agio Vasili and sleep.

Day 25

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:27:00 GMT

This morning Katina and I headed out to see the Acropolis and the Acropolis museum. As soon as we got their Katina turned into an encyclopaedia on ancient Greek history and mythology, it was brilliant to learn all the things she had to tell me. The Acropolis was amazing, and the stones you walk on were amazingly slippery. The museum was unbelievable aswell and you were allowed to take pictures which was very cool.

After the museum we headed over to Theo Nicko’s house. Theo Nicko his wife (who Is tiny) the two sons Thanasi and Periklis were all there. We had lunch there, I went down to say hello to Thia Marika, who is looking very fit and healthy, and then Thanasi and I began the 4 hr drive to Asopo where Arthur, Joanne, Peter, Michael, Thia Eleni, Theo Taki, Thia Diamando, Theo Vasili, Theo Vasili’s mum, sister, brother in law, nephew and neighbour were all waiting for us. I’d like to take a moment now to say that Helen Konstantinidis shares a huge resemblance with here aunty. We got there, got the introductions done and went out for dinner by the beach. Afterwards we came back, chatted a bit more and went to sleep.

Day 26

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:27:00 GMT

I shared a room with Peter and Michael last night and I was the first one to fall asleep, Michale would have been quite happy to stay up all night chatting about my favourite guns, movies, games and what to do in case of a zombie apocalypse.

Anyway, today we went to a little beach called Boza. This beach was better than any in Kalymnos, not as many urchins, lots of life in seagrass beds just off the beach and not too crowded, We spent most of the morning swimming before going to the little Caffeneio nearby to have some lunch.

In the afternoon we went to Monemvasia. It is an amazing little island, definitely worth going to. The fortifications are like something out of Lord of the Rings. We spent the afternoon there and Arthur, the kids and I went up to the top. We got dinner in the new part of the city and then went for a walk around before heading back to Theo Vasili’s house for some shut eye.

Day 24

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:26:00 GMT

Fortunately I had packed last night because I was woken up today with the news that the Kalymnos star ferry wasn’t running so we had to get on another earlier “Ferry.” We all got taxi’s down to where you get the ferries from and sat and had a Frappe while we waited. What arrived couldn’t be called a ferry, more of a 3 person fishing boat… with 12+ tourists and luggage piled onto it. I’m pretty sure it was illegal aswell because the captain kept on telling us to stay inside the boat and not stand out on the deck. We arrived in Kos safely without drowning. The wait at Kos airport was surprisingly bearable and in no time we were on our way to Athens.

When I got to Athens I was greeted by Thia Katina. We went back to her house which is in a very nice area, no where near as crowded, dirty or muggy as Athens. I met her husband and only one of her sons, Vasili. Vasili, Katina and I headed to Suoni that afternoon which is an ancient temple to Poseidon, and from this temple you can see the cliffs that supposedly that guy who killed the minotaur’s dad threw himself off when his son forgot to change the colour of his sales when returning home. We went back to Katina’s house, had some leftover yemista for dinner chatted for a while then went to bed.

Day 23

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:24:00 GMT

Officially the last day of the programme. We got to the school nice and early and started the presentations, I went second so I could get it over and done with, and I went pretty well even if I say so myself, only slipped up on a couple of words which isn’t too bad considering one girl cried halfway through hers and another just had to stop and sit down and do it privately for the lecturer. HTFU

After the presentations had finished the teachers were doing some speeches when all of a sudden the mother of the two brothers that own the school came in in hysterics. Naturally we all went outside to so what the problem was and a kid on a scooter, without a helmet, had come around the corner and smashed into her parked car. Out of nowhere the kids mother came and started yelling and trying to hit the mother of the two brothers that own the school, one of the brothers went down to help his mum. After he went down the father of the kid on the scooter started trying to fight him, even the kid who hit the car managed to pick up his ambulance stretcher and swing it at him. It all calmed down pretty quickly, the kid and family left in the ambulance and the cops came… they didn’t really do much though.

After the excitement we all went back to the hotel to do our own things before dinner, a few of us went for a final walk and got a yiros. That night we went out and saw all of the music students, mentioned in an earlier entry, perform and Jianni, one of the people on the trip, did a bit of byzantine chanting with some of the musicians playing.

After the performance we went to the same restaurant that we went to for Victoria’s birthday, we had a live band again and all of the music students also came with us. We didn’t stay particularly late though because we had to get up the next day to get back to Athens.

Day 22

lannigan — Wed, 4 Aug 2010 15:19:00 GMT

Today we had to get up bright and early and head to school for the final day of working on assignments so as you can imagine this will be a very interesting day to write about… NOT!!! *said in Borat voice*

We got to the school around 9:00 and worked until 6:00 at night. We then went back to the hotel for a while where everybody practiced their presentations until we went for tea and then everybody came back and got some shut eye. Like I said, exciting day…

Day 21

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:48:00 GMT

This morning we went to two places before the school. One was one of only four government run schools for kids and people with learning disabilities which was good to see, they had nicer toilets, showers and baths than our hotel, which might I add is getting on all our nerves, my room has no hot water from the shower, or a shower curtain at all so we flood the bathroom every time we bathe in the saltwater that flows from the tap, a sink that doesn’t drain properly, a cleaner that doesn’t come or when she does come she takes our towels and doesn’t replace them and the same terrible breakfast everyday. OK hotel rant over.

After the special school we went to s primary school where a group of musicians from all over Greece were practicing for a performance that we were going to see on Friday. School was next on the list, it was a standard day working on our assignments, mines just about done, yay. Nothing special happened that night though just a normal dinner then bed.

Day 20

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:47:00 GMT

We started off today with a morning trip to an ancient ruined temple to Apollo which had a church built next to it in the Byzantine stage. The old temple was pretty cool, you could walk into it and have a look around, there was also a little museum built nearby which had some info on the temple and what it looked like before it was properly excavated. It was on some guy land and al you could see was the dome sticking up out of the soil, o what did the guy do, he painted it red to match his house, pretty funny actually.

After that it was off to the school so we could continue work on our assignments, Phillip II actually had a really interesting life, he was a brilliant military leader but I think my favourite fact about him so far has been the letter he sent to the Spartans. It said something like “… If I come into your lands and you don’t join me I will defeat all of your armies and burn your cities…” The reply simply said “If” Phillip never moved his forces into Sparta.

We went to the council this night for a kind of graduation ceremony… there were two TV stations present. We had to sit through some very long speeches and were given a certificate and a whole lot of books, it was a nice enough event. Afterwards the mayor and vice mayor (who looks a lot like a greek Will Ferrell) took us out for dinner again but we didn’t have a late one as we knew we would have a lot of work to do again tomorrow.

Day 18

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:45:00 GMT

This day marked the start of what looks like it will be a very intense week. The morning started off with George Frazis telling us all about how much work we would be doing everyday so we can get our assignments finished. Directly after this he told us about how we would also be going out every night for thing like birthday parties, listening to singers and other dinner things (dinner that wont start until 11-12 at night.)

After this we all went to the school for a little while because, even though it was a Sunday, we all wanted to get started on our assignments. After school was finished it was back to the hotel so that we could all get ready for going to a restaurant on the other side of the island for Victoria’s (one of the girls on the course) birthday. It was a pretty good night, great food, live music, dancing and the Vice Mayor payed for everything, yeah great saving in an economic crisis Greece.

Day 19

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:45:00 GMT

Nothing special happened during the day today, just another boring day working on our assignments at school. After school though we went to the Kalymnos museum which was better than expected some very cool and interesting thing found in the waters off of Kalymnos.

After the Museum it was back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before getting ready to go out for dinner. This dinner wasn’t anything special, just our normal restaurant with a very nice selection of mezethes. We all went back to the hotel at around 12:30 for an early nights sleep because we knew what tomorrow would be like at school.

Day 16-17

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:44:00 GMT

I’ve combined these days because they were combined for us on the trip. We started off the morning by going to a park where they were excavating some tombs, all we were allowed to see was the outside wall of the tombs. After the park we went to Bergina, which was probably the best museum yet. Inside they had the tombs of Phillip II, one of his wives (he had 7) and the tomb of one of Alexander the greats sons, they also had some other amazing thing like the full armour and shield of Phillip II.

After Bergina I did my interview with Dimitri our tour guide about the life of Phillip II, we had some lunch, quickly went to Edessa and then went back to the hotel so we could start packing to get ready to leave.

Our plane for Kos left at 6 in the morning, we had to be there an hour early for check in, and it takes 2.5 hrs to get to the airport so we had to leave at around 2:15 in the morning, we all pulled an all nighter.

The flight to Kos and the ferry to Kalymnos both went without incident and we spent the day in Kalymnos eating yiros and swimming in the pool. That night we went to our favourite restaurant to eat and all crashed at around 11 o’clock.

Day 15

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:42:00 GMT

This morning we were invited to the Council of Aridea so the mayor could give us a little speech that lasted about 3 hours after he had given us all the books and stuff that he wanted to give us. After the council we went to the bazaar in Aridea where we did a bit of shopping, I bought some fake Calvin Klein jocks and some socks for 10 euros and a pair of leather lofas for 12 euros. Afterwards we went out and got some lunch at the loutra, at this restaurant was a dog that I adopted for the hour or so we were there, his name was Ares and as soon as we sat down he came up and put his paw on my knee. He looked like a german shep cross husky. Afterwards we went back to the little church we went to on the first day and they had a little service for us. Across the road from the church was a little business that made those preserved fruits in syrups like Yiayia makes. We sampled fig, rose, cherry and watermelon, and I purchased a jar of rose and walnut to bring home.

We went back to the hotel to get dressed up o we could go Giannis Gliavakis’ house again because he was throwing a party for us. He had hired a band, a dance troupe and we put on some of the bet food I’ve had in Greece yet. After the party we went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

Day 14

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:41:00 GMT

The plan today was to head to Dion archaeological park and then to the Dion museum. This offcourse meant a two hour bus ride to begin with which is always fun.

The bus ride was definitely worth it is this case. The park was amazing, lot of ruined temples, baths, the original roads and some amazing statue stands. The museum was next on the list was the museum. In the museum were all the original statues that they found at Dion and the piece de resistance was a byzantine instrument that was pretty much intact, one of the only ones in the world.

After Dion we headed to a beach for some lunch and some of the kids went in for a swim, I gave it a miss. That night we had dinner at the hotel and the mayor of Aridea came and bought a band with him so we danced a bit as well and that was the end of that day.

Day 13

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:39:00 GMT

Today started off pretty much the same as yesterday except that the breakfast was different bthan yesterdays (something that we didn’t get to experience at villa themillina in Kalymnos.) We got on the bus and started the 2.5 hr journey to Thessaloniki. When we got there it was off to see aint Dimiti’s Church and to check out his relic (his bones) we also met our tour guide Dimitri there and he gave u a talk about the past of the church and how Dimitri became saint. After the tour finished we went into the church office where we heard the first chanter chant a few songs.

Next it was off to the museum of Thesaloniki to check out the exhibit they had on golden jewellery found in Macedonia from ancient and Classical times. The exhibit was pretty impressive and it was the first time I had a chance to see some weapons and armour from those times.

After the museum it was off to the heart of the city to get a bit of shopping done, we didn’t have much time so we only really went to one shop which was Zara, sought of like David Jones or Myer but they just sell clothes.

When our brief hopping experience was over we went to the theatre (George Frazis had seen the lead actor in the Athens airport, started chatting and scored cheap tickets for all of us.) The play we aw in the amphitheatre was an Aristophanes one, cant remember what it was called though, maybe Loukanika omega or something, it was pretty damn funny. After the play we got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel.

Day 12

lannigan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:38:00 GMT

This is actually a pretty awesome hotel. Breakfasts are a lot better than those at villa themillina in Kalymnos, showers, taps and toilets work (still can’t flush the toilet paper though.) We had breakfast at the hotel and then all piled onto the bus to head to some guy called Jiannnis Gliavakis’ house (apparently he was some EU senator or something) he gave us an incredibly long winded speech about something (I half tuned out, half couldn’t understand what he was saying) but you know it’s a boring speech when the teachers start falling asleep. After the speech he showed us around his private collection of antiquities which included an old sowing machine which he seemed very proud of (to me it looked the exact same as yiayia’s, possibly newer than yiayia’s) there were also some very nice paintings from around the time if Kolokotronis and he had some very cool belt buckles from ancient and byzantine times.

After leaving Jiannis’ house we quickly stopped off at a little church, said hello to the priest and then went and got a frappe with him. After the coffee we went to the archaeological sight of Pella and met Dimitri who would be our tour guide for everywhere we went for the rest of our time in Macedonia. Pella was pretty cool, there were lots of mosaics around the place and lots of columns. After the archaeological park we went to the museum of Pella to have a look at all of the more valuable things that they dug up. The first thing we saw was the head of Alexander the Great (the real version of what we have as you enter our house) it was pretty awesome. There were various other amazing pieces in the Museum like the mosaic of Alexander hunting a lion and plates that had various pornographic pictures on them, Dimitri seemed to find it quite amusing to translate what these plates had written on them, things like “… put it as deep a it will go.”

After Pella we went back to the hotel to grab our bathers before going to Loutra which is a place that has one hot waterfall right next to a freezing cold one, after going from the cold to the hot quickly your whole body feels like it has pins and needles. After Loutra we went to a taverna to eat and then went back to the hotel.

Day 11

lannigan — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:56:00 GMT

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Today was a pretty boring day, a day of travelling. We had to catch the early ferry back to Kos because if we caught the later one we would miss our flight to Athens. When we got to Kos airport we had quite a bit of time to kill, needless to say the only café there and the duty free shop got quite a workout while we were there. After we reached Athens a lot of the group were happy to finallu get a chance to go to Maccy D’s (McDonalds) they have some crazy burger the Mc Royale, the Mc Farm and other such madness.

Once we reached Thessaloniki we thought the travelling was done. Unfortunately our hotel was about 2.5 out of Thessaloniki at a hotel called Oasis in a place called Piperyia (capsicum) in the area of Aridea. We reached the hotel, were greeted with a feast and all went to bed. Unfortunately all of the guys had to share double beds, and to top it all off, I was in the honey moon suite.

Day 10

lannigan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:11:00 GMT

We spent the day at a little cement beach swimming around, avoiding stepping on urchins (there is a ridiculous amount of urchins in the beaches here) we went to a little café for lunch and I had a mermizeli salad (like greek salad but with baksimathia (oven dried bread )in) after lunch we went back into the water for another swim then came out for some sun baking (well everyone else sunbaked, I lay down in the shade with sunscreen on )

After getting back from the beach we went back to the hotel to get ready for the farewell party for Antigone, one our teachers. The night played out like much like last night did, with eating, drinking, singing and dancing.

Hopefully that will hold everybody for another day while I write the next few. Sorry about the inconsistency but we've been busy with the major assignment

Day 9

lannigan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:10:00 GMT

Today was an important day at school, most of the students had to do the interviews for their major assignments. This meant that I had to do very little work all day because I had finished my interview questions last night and I can’t do my interview until Macedonia. It was great to listen to the other interviews going on though. One of the interviews was with a sponge diver, he had a bad leg and a bad hand from being pulled up to quickly one time, he struggled to work but he still sponge dived. He had also lost his brother to a sponge diving accident but didn’t want to go into the details. He also looked amazingly young, he looked 35/36 but apparently was 51, sponge diving must keep you in good shape. There was also a slightly creepy older guy who had lived in Darwin who was interviewed by other students. He cried, it was pretty pathetic, I laughed on the inside.

After the Interviews we went back to the hotel and a few of us went out with George Frazis to order some food, balloons and to buy some presents because Maria (one of the students) turned 35 so we had a birthday party for her. We partied into the night, some people sang some songs and we went to bed with the knowledge that we could sleep in because tomorrow will be Saturday.

Day 8

lannigan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:09:00 GMT

Today started much in the same manner as any of the other school days so far, we got up, had breakfast and went to school… sorry, did I say school, I meant cafeneio. They were working on the power cables near the school so there was no power there. We had our lesson at the café. We had to decide what our topics would be for our main assignments. Since we are going to some pretty speccy museums in Macedonia I thought I’d do mine on Phillip II (Alexander the great’s dad.)

After the lesson/ café session we went back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day at the pool and working on our interview questions because we will have to interview people for out major assignment. That night we went out to the same taverna as last night 6 for dinner