Antiparos Sea Caves

Antiparos

Antiparos is an island right next to Paros. It's literally a 5 minute boat ride. It was probably one of the best trips here! It was such a nice day, completely sunny and insanely hot, maybe 80 degrees.
We first went to "the cave of Antiparos." It was the coolest place ever! It actually reminded me of "The Goonies." So here's a little bit of background on the cave...
The interior of the cave remained a mystery until 1673 when the French dignitary entered the interior of the cave using ropes. The archway leading into the cave has a width of 65.5ft and a height of 26ft. The cave has a depth of 328ft, we had to take 411 steps just to get to the center of the cave. Once we got to the bottom, it was amazing! We seriously stood there in awe! There was graffiti everywhere! Although, now nobody is allowed to right on the walls of the cave. The graffiti is from 16 and 1700's. It was so cool to see writing from that long ago!
After the cave we went on a boat ride to see some sea caves. We stopped the boat and went swimming for a bit. It was amazing, like always, to see how clear the water was. After swimming for a bit we climbed to the top of the sea caves and went cliff diving. It was so much fun but I thought I was going to have a heart attack because we were so high up and I was so scared to jump. I did it though and it was so worth it! I thought I was never going to stop falling but it was the best feeling ever! The day was definitely a success! :)

Sailing!

I learned how to sail the other day! It was such a blast! A few of my friends and I took out a boat with an instructor and went sailing for two hours. It was kind of difficult, I was scared I was going to flip the boat a few times when I was steering. The instructor made me get in a small boat with my friend who has been sailing for a while and made us capsize the boat. I was so scared I was going to hit my head or something on the sail but it really wasn't so bad. It was just really difficult trying to flip the boat back over and to get back in. My friend Clay had to pull me in by life jacket. haha It was so much fun, though!!!! I wish I had pictures to show for it...

I rode on a motorcycle/scooter yesterday! My friend Dan rented a scooter, that looked more like a motorcycle, and we drove to the other side of the island on it. It was pretty scary especially with all the winding roads and mountains. I still had fun but I think riding on the back of one once was enough for me.

George

My creative writing teacher's name is George, he's an older white-haired man with a beard. He's written two memoir novels that I know of and both have been published. So here's the interesting and really cool part... His book "Bones of the Master" was bought by Hollywood, I don't remember which company bought it, but anyway it's in preproduction right now. What's really cool is that Richard Gere wants to play George's character in the movie!!! George has been keeping in contact with Richard Gere's "people" and the production company has to have the budget set for the film by this coming winter. I think it's so cool that I'm being taught by an author who had these wonderful published books, and one is soon to be a movie featuring Richard Gere!!!

Update!!!

So here is a little update about what is going on in Greece and with my studies here. Finally! The weather is becoming beautiful!!!!! Yesterday and today felt like it was nearly 80 degrees. The weather channel has been saying its only been about 65 degrees but with the sun it feel so much warmer! I am getting such a great tan, it's so exciting! I have to be extra careful here because the sun is so much different and I burn instantly if I don't have sunblock on. It's so great to be able to just walk to the beach and layout whenever I feel like and also to finally be able to go swimming! The water is so incredible! Last weekend we jumped in the middle of the ocean (probably at least 30ft deep) and I could see my shadow on the floor of the ocean. The water is so so SO cold! It takes your breath away every time you jump in... it's not bad after a minute, once your body is numb. haha I'm missing home a lot but with this nice weather it's going to be really difficult to go back.

On the work rather than leisure side of things, the end of the semester is coming so quickly! Next week is our last week of classes and I can hardly believe how fast the time went by. We've all been working really hard on our own projects and on May 28th all of us students will be presenting all of our final projects at an art exhibition that's put on for the whole island to see. I'll be showing a painting I have been working on for the past month and reading some pieces of my writing that go along with my painting. It has been so much work especially considering I have never painted in my life before this. It's taking me so much time just to do little details on the painting and I'm even nervous I won't have it done in time or it won't be good enough. I have to say, though, I'm surprising myself on how well the painting is coming along. I'm also nervous to read my writings... I hate public speaking!!! I guess I have to get over my fear at some point in my life! Depending on how confident I feel with my pieces, maybe I'll post them on here when I am finished... but we'll see...

On another note...
I cannot wait to be home! I fly in on the 3rd and I couldn't be more excited! I think I've been homesick for the past 2 months. Once I get home, I really want some Olive Garden or Johnny Carino's, or Jimmy John's!!!! I also can't wait to take an actual shower... I just went three (or four) days without showering; don't worry I wasn't trying to be gross or lazy but we had no hot water and no water pressure and the little bit of water that was trickling out was orange/yellow! I also can't wait to see grass... there is really no legit grass in Greece, it's all weeds or wildflowers. I promise I'm not over-exaggerating. I miss having freshly dried and clean clothes also... I don't mind hanging my clothes out on the line every time I wash them but I'm starting to get sick of the crusty feeling once they dry. I'm going to miss Greece a lot but I'm really missing home right now!

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos

One of my favorite bands, Fleet Foxes, wrote a song about Mykonos, the island I just visited. Just a fun fact, but it's a really good song! :)

Mikonos

After visiting the old folks island, we moved on to Mikonos. An island known for being the "Gay Capital of the World." I really couldn't tell you if it was because I didn't pay much attention but I do know they had tons of shops!!!! I was so excited to see Sephora, Juicy Couture, Lacoste, and Starbucks... it's just nice to see familiar names. While we were there we ate some decent food, had some ice cream, did some shopping, and gaucked at the enormous yachts that were at the port. Nothing too exciting happened here, but it was a really nice place to walk around. I also hear the night-life is suppose to be a blast... I wish we had a chance to stay into the evening...

Delos

Today we visited Delos, an island about an hour ferry ride away from where I live. It's basically an archeological site, the whole island is full of a city of ruins. Nobody lives there now, tourists visit and archeologists explore it. When Delos was a running city thousands of years of ago, people could not be born and could not die on the island, they had to go elsewhere to do so. The reason for this was so the island didn't belong to anyone, it had no ownership I guess. Most of the city that remained was literally rocks. There wasn't one structure that was even remotely a full building. In the museum they had on the island there were a lot of full sculptures and paintings. They were quite beautiful, I was surprised that most of the sculptures were so in tact. The paintings were really interesting to look at, as well. Most of them actually looked like Native American paintings rather than Greek ones. The island was pretty decent, but it was mostly full of old English tourists with weggies and wearing bucket hats. haha

Santorini

I would have to say that Santorini was one of the best places I have visited since I've been in Greece! It was completely different compared to Paros and the other islands. All the towns were built on top of the cliffs and into the rocks. It was so incredibly beautiful. The only downfall was that in order to get to the villages you had to walk up steps... 250 steps, to be exact, and they were all on an incline. My calves are killing me now!!!! I look like an old lady when I walk. haha The walk was totally worth it though! We went to the city where they filmed "Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants" and saw a bunch of places where the movie was filmed, like where Lena falls in the water and Costas saves her, and where she jumps into the water by the church. It was pretty cool. Once we got to the village we stayed until dusk to watch the famous "million dollar sunset." It was incredible! I don't think I've seen a sunset like it!
While in Santorini, we also went on a boat tour around the island. During the tour stops we hiked a volcano, swam in the ocean where the water was 75 degrees (because of the volcano), and ate at an amazing authentic restaurant. I had fried fish and Calamari with rice. So delicious!!!!
Our last day in Santorini we went to one of the famous colored beaches. Santorini has golden, red, and black sand beaches... we went to the black sand one. It was so nice out-- we laid under cabanas at a beach side bar and had cocktails for a few hours. I wish I could go back, Santorini was AMAZING!!!!

Photo Shoot continued....

The extent of our photo shoot last weekend. Yea.... I live with a bunch of artists.

Tao's Center

As a energy building exercise we went to a Tao Center for a Philosophy class. We practiced building our energy and balancing it throughout our body and then went out to a 15 minute meditation. I love the lecture and session so much that decided to go back this morning with one of my professors. We began with a 30 minute silent meditation and then had an hour Tai Chi and energy building lesson. It was so relaxing and stress relieving. It was really what I need especially with my high levels of anxiety lately. Before meditation started I sat on my pillow and watched our Yogi instructor due Tai Chi dancing... it was beautiful. It gave me goosebumps to watch him. He was so into it. Just imagine, a 60 year old man flowing across the floor with a bamboo stick in his hand and moving to Asian Kabuki music. It was stunning. Lynn, the Yogi, is so great! He has a way of talking that is so attractive and encouraging. While teaching us he tells us, "keep your head up, I've already found the money on the floor." He talks about how important it is to balance your energy and not to strain it or build it up in only one part of your body. He says you have to find the place that holds that negative energy, because if you can't find it, you can't let it go.
Needless to say, I bought a pass for the month and will be doing yoga, thai chi, pilates, energy, mind, and body exercise, along with meditation. I'm really excited, I hope it makes my anxiety subside!

Here are some pictures of Tao's, it's such a tranquil place set in the mountains looking over the see. And the rooms are so calming as well and are filled with the smell of incents and little with warm lights and candles.

Photoshoot

On nights we don't feel like drinking we go crazy and do this...
More pictures to come, the night is still young.

Thunderstorms

It's 6am and I just woke up. Thunderstorms here are the worst. One, beacause they feel more intense being close to the mountains and two, because I have to walk a mile to school in them. It also doesn't help that I'm incredibly scared of thunderstorms, especially when I'm alone like this. It makes me miss home a bit. Although, on the upside I don't think they get tornados here, at least I hope not!

More Easter Photos!

EASTER!!!!! Christos Anesti

Okay, so I wish I could post the video that I took of Easter Saturday but my camera won't download. :( So, I'm going to post some similar videos from youtube of what my Easter was like. :)
First everybody goes to the church as midnight and we all stand outside to where the priest eventually walks out. While we're waiting there are big firecrackers/fireworks going of right next to us. Once the ceremony starts people start lighting candles, so we all have one. The priest comes to a podium outside and talks for about 10 minutes and then they light a huge flame on top of the church and EVERYONE freaks out! They started throwing fireworks in the middle of the circle (of course no one was standing there), it was like a war was going on. It was so insanely awesome!!!!!! It was by far the best Easter mass I had ever been to! The fireworks continued through the whole night!
After mass, we all headed to the bar where my friends and I met this band. They're parents owned a resort on the island and we all went there for a beach party! It was such a gorgeous place. The beach went on for miles and and the sky was so clear, the stars were beautiful and it was so great how the moon reflected off the sea. Such a great night!!!!

Enjoy the Videos :)

Hierapolis of Phrygia

In Turkey we visited an ancient Necropolis "City of Death." It was known as a place of medicine, people would go here to die or to get better. The streets are basically lined with tombs and mausoleums, pretty morbid. At the end there was a small city with an amphitheater and town gathering space "Agora." There were also natural hot springs. Some of the springs close to the town they made somewhat of a water park out of them. Literally it was a pool on top of ancient fallen buildings that people could swim in. If you walked a little further there was a mountain full of warm springs with a small stream flowing through it. It looks all white because of the calcium build up. It was a really awesome site to see and relaxing to sit on the edge of the hot stream and dip my feet in.

Ephesus Museum

Across the street from our hotel in Turkey was the Ephesus museum. At first, I thought it would be kind of lame because I'm not a big fan of museums but it was really cool. There were giant full statues of all the different gods. I was obsessed with the Dionysus statue, he was beautiful! haha I mostly liked his hair! Dionysus was the god of ecstasy and wine/grape harvesting. It was said that he was born from Zeus's thigh.
I'm also posting a head sculpture of Zeus, a picture of a Tritonlar that I thought was really neat, and a battle scene sculpture.

St. John the Baptist Church

In the town of Sirince at the top of the hill sat St. John the Baptist Church. I can't remember the details of how old it was but I think you'll get the gist with the pictures.

Painting

This is my first attempt at painting in art class. Pretty scary.

Caves/ Turkish Pancakes

Down the road from where we were staying in Selcuk were some "caves." They were called "The Seven Sleeping Caves." They were more like man made caves for tombs. It was pretty cool but we couldn't really go in to check them out because they were gated.
After looking at the caves we went to a restaurant that was right next them. It was so cute and traditional. There were for older woman sitting on table when we walked in making the food and the tables we ate at were practically pillows on the floor around a wooden slab next to a fireplace. Turkey is known for their pancakes (essentially crepes), so that's what everyone got for lunch. They were delicious and filled with minced meat, feta, chedder, spinach, and tomato.

Selcuk/Sirince/Bazaar

During our visit in Turkey we stayed in the city of Selcuk. It was a decent size but the shops and restaurants were all within walking distance from our hotel. To start, the food there was to die for. Plus, the shopping was addicting. We found a small jewelry store and I think I was in there everyday buying something. The silver there was so cheap, everything was cheap!
Also, 99.8% of the population in Turkey is Muslim so at least five times a day they would have prayer over a sound system. It was so great to be apart of the culture like that, besides the 5am wake up calls with prayer.

Ephesus

Ephesus was one of the first places we visited when we got to Greece. It's one of the most intact ancient cities in the country, maybe of all ancient Greek ruins, I can't really remember. It was such an amazing and breathtaking place. It was gorgeous in all of it's entirety. The streets were paved with marble (one part was a full mosaic). The buildings and carvings were so intricate, it was incredible. The library was insanely intact and there were full sculptures in it that barely had any wear to them. The whole city was huge, I can't even start to describe it with words or through my pictures. It was probably one of the coolest places I've been. It really put you in such a crazy perspective walking down the marble road and through the buildings and structures, you really felt apart of the city.

A description of the foundation of the city said that it goes back to the Neolithic Ages (6000 B.C.). Researchers in the recent years revealed settlements from Bronze Age and Hitite period on tumuli (prehistoric hilltop settlements) around Ephesus where a castle is located. The city was founded around 300 B.C by Lysimakhos who was one of the generals of Alexander the Great. The city lived during the Hellenistic and Roman period, and had a population of 200,000 as the capital and largest port city of Roman Province of Asia.