When In Rome...

We are now enjoying some more warm weather in Rome, and three days in, we've been able to see most of the town. Fortunately our hotel is very centrally located, and we have been able to walk to the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, Piazza Novona, the Pantheon, Piazza Venezia, and today we took a short bus ride to the Vatican where we had a guided tour of the Vatican Museum before strolling through St.Peter's Square and getting some pictures of the square and the basilica.

So far, I'm getting the impression that some of our students would rank Rome's top attractions as:

#3: Any building that is air conditioned
#2: The movie theatre that is showing the new Harry Potter film (see #3 again)
#1: McDonalds

As we drove into town the other day, our bus drove immediately past the Colosseum, and we heard several comments of "oh, that's it?" or "I thought it would be bigger". Then, a few blocks later, we passed by the first McDonald's restaurant that we have seen in a while, and we heard a chorus of elation coming from the back of the bus. Expressions of "Oh my God! They have McDonald's!" and "I'm SO getting a Big Mac!" were heard several times. Fortunately, once the Big Macs were consumed, there was still some appreciation remaining for ancient architecture and the real sights of Rome. The Colosseum was really impressive, and it's really fun to visit all of the sights that you've only ever read about or seen in films.

It's hard to believe, but we are quickly coming to the end of the trip. We had our last formal excursion today, and the students only have 3 more days of classes (one of which being their formal written exam in class on Thursday). I think most people are starting to look forward to seeing their families again, but it also seems like a lot of very good friendships have been made, and many people are not looking forward to the trip being over...although I heard that they might be close to settling the garbage strike in Toronto? I don't think that anybody is looking forward to a stinky homecoming, so hopefully they sort that out for us. See you all on Friday!

Positano, Paestum and Palinuro

We have just finished the "P" trifecta of Italian fun. From Positano Beach to the ruins at Paestum and then exploring the caves at Palinuro, we've had a jam-packed couple of days.

Yesterday we all took the ferry over to Positano. The town is built into the side of a hill, and the beach is very popular with locals and tourists...and apparently NBA basketball players. We shared a ferry and I even had lunch with a player on the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. By "had lunch", I mean that he was in the same restaurant. We did not speak to one another. It was his 7'2" frame that initially gave it away, so we asked the server if he could get us the details about who he was, because my 5'8" frame is not a big enough basketball fan to know. Supposedly it was Roy Hibbert, and based on my wikipedia research, he was actually drafted by the Toronto Raptors, but then traded to Indiana. He also makes 1.5 million dollars per year, making his lunch much more affordable than mine was.

We did manage to get some good beach time in at Positano, so that was nice and relaxing. Have I mentioned that we have not seen rain yet on the trip? I don't mean to rub it in with you people at home, where I hear it's been miserable, but it's been over 30 and sunny every single day of July so far in Greece and Italy. I'll stop there before the Canadians at home start getting angry.

Today, we went and visited the ruins at Paestum where Mr.Lawlor used his vast history knowledge to serve as our guide. He shared some interesting and humourous quips about Paestum. It was another hot tour, but our guide was skilled at finding shade and controlling the amount of time spent elaborating.

Finally, we ended our excursion by visiting Palinuro. Ugo and Luccio run a little boat company and they took us out on their boat for a tour of the caves around Palinuro. We visited 5 in total, and Ugo and Luccio were able to navigate the boat right into all of them. The blue grotto at Palinuro was almost as nice as the one at Capri. The Monks Grotto has stalagmites that look like monks, and there's even a smelly grotto. I forget its name, so let's just call it the smelly grotto. It smells like sulphur. Not pleasant, but very interesting.

We have one more day in Sorrento and then we are off to Rome on Saturday. I'll update you all from Rome!

Sorrento

Well, weàve all settled into Sorrento, and I cannot find the apostrophe on the Italian keyboard...oh, who would have thought, tucked up there beside the zero. Excellent. No more çàçs... Wait, now I can't find the quotation marks...ahhh, of course, shift 2. Let's just hope we don't need an "at" symbol.

The town of Sorrento is really quite nice. There are a number of busy piazzas and cafes and restaurants everywhere downtown. The streets in the shopping area downtown are really narrow and all made of cobblestones. It's really how I pictured Italy. There are even men with accordions singing to cafe patrons in the evenings. Very cultural.

Today, we took the ferry to the island of Capri. It took about 25 minutes and when we arrived, we got on another boat that gave us a full tour of the island. We saw the White Grotto (full of white stalactites), the Green Grotto (Ms.McGoey remembers them saying something about copper in the rocks causing this effect), and we saw the famous Blue Grotto. It was really impressive. A surly Italian man takes you into this cave on a little row boat that holds no more than 4 people. The cave is all dark, except for the water which is a brilliant blue colour. I'm afraid that my camera will not be able to do this justice, but that seems to happen a lot of these trips. I should just stick to photographing my pizza.

After the boat tour, we took the funicular (incline railway) up to the top of the town of Capri and did some shopping. They had pretty much every fancy store imaginable, and when I say we did some shopping, I mean that I was politely ignored each time I entered a Dolce & Gabana or Prada store. I say each time, because they actually have multiples of these in Capri. It's kind of like McDonalds; you can go to any one anywhere in the world and get the same big mac. I can go in any Dolce & Gabana store and they can immediately tell that I cannot afford their clothing.

Tomorrow we are having class in the morning, followed by a full afternoon at Positano Beach. I think most of us got quite a bit of sun today, but I don't think we'll get too many complaints about a beach day.

Hope you're all having lots of beach weather at home. See you soon!

Italy!

After what seemed like a very long travel day, we have arrived in Italy and are all settled in at our hotel in Sorrento. I am still searching for an adequate location to place my suitcase, as the teachers have been allocated rooms whose dimensions are approximately equal to those of our beds. The students seem to find this quite amusing, as many of them appear to be living the "suite life" in their relatively sizable rooms.

It took us a little while to meet up with our bus driver at the airport in Rome yesterday (I'm not so sure that he was looking for us as hard as I was looking for him. In fact, I'm convinced he was actually hiding). The drive to Sorrento from Rome was also a bit lengthy because of massive traffic jams. I think we saw the entire Italian population on the road yesterday. Sorrento is a major tourist destination for people from all over.

Today we woke up bright and early and went to visit the ruins at Pompei. Unfortunately, along the way, we were also able to photograph the ruins of our bus as it broke down a few minutes outside of sorrento. Our driver dealt with it in typical Italian fashion:

1. There was some yelling (I'm not sure who or what he was yelling at. It wasn't us though.
2. There was a lot of hand gestures, particularly the one with both arms extended at the sides with palms facing up in disbelief.
3. He smoked a cigarette.
4. He told us that the bus was broken and that another one was coming. Fortunately, it was only about 15 minutes before we were on our way again.

Once at Pompei, it was really cool to see the remains of this city that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. The plaster casts of people frozen in time was pretty eerie. After Pompei, we went for lunch at a traditional pizzeria in the birthplace of pizza, Naples. Fortunately Naples has pizza to claim as their own, because if it weren't for this delicious food, they would be known for pollution, litter, graffiti, and people who yell for no reason. Pizza wins this one. It was delicious, by the way.

After lunch, we visited the archeological museum in Naples. It's full of artifacts from Pompei, although some students seemed more intrigued by the two photos Mr.Lawlor took of me at the pizzeria, one with a full plate of pizza, and one with an empty plate. When the back and forth buttons on my camera are pressed rapidly between these two similar photos, it appears as though the pizza is disappearing and reappearing. Take my word for it, it was fascinating.

We finished the day by hiking up Mount Vesuvius...It took some convincing for some of our students after seeing the damage that it had caused in the past, but they were all very excited to make it to the top. The view from the peak was amazing, and it was really exciting to look into the crater of an active volcano and actually see some steam coming up through the rocks.

We have a full day of class scheduled for tomorrow, followed by a full day visiting the island of Capri on Tuesday. I think I know which one the students are looking most forward to...

Back in Athens - Off to Italy tomorrow!

We have now arrived back in Athens for two days before heading out to Sorrento in Italy tomorrow. After being spoiled with the high speed ferry on the way to Mykonos, we took the normal ferry back to Athens yesterday. One student asked "why would they invent slow ferries when the highspeed ones are so much better?" We discussed the likely succession of ferry development, and then it made more sense.

Our ferry ride took about 5 and a half hours, and we generally pretty smooth, although it was quite windy and choppy in the Aegean Sea. Somehow, most of our students managed to find seats in the air conditioned indoor part, but some of us rode on the upper (outdoor) patio for the duration. After a full day of travelling, we made it to Pireaus (the port in Athens). Mr.Lawlor and I noticed that a woman sitting at a nearby table on the boat actually had a tattoo on her shoulder that had an image of a pirate and the word "Pireaus" written below it. We concluded that she must really like the port. It's ok, but certainly not tattoo worthy.

This afternoon, we have arranged to take any interested students on an excursion to the newly opened Acropolis Museum here in Athens. The museum was built with the intention of proving that Athens could adequately store and display they Elgin Marbles (which were taken by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s from the Acropolis, and are now on display at the British Museum), but so far, all the British are saying is "Nice museum, Athens, but we're keeping the marbles". There are several original pieces of the Acropolis that have made it into the Acropolis Museum though, so it should be an interesting afternoon.

Tonight, we are going to have our farewell to Greece dinner at a restaurant in the Plaka neighbourhood down near the Acropolis. It should be a fun time and a tasty authentic Greek meal.

I'll write again in a couple of days from Sorrento. Bye for now!

Mykonos

We have been in Mykonos for the past 3 days, and it has definitely been a highlight of the trip for many, including myself. The hotel that we have been staying at is right on the beach, and although some of the swimming attire takes some getting used to, we have been enjoying the sunshine and beautiful beach weather. It continues to be sunny and mid-30s every day, even on the island.

Yesterday, some of the students came with me to visit the island of Delos. We saw the ruins of a 2000 year old city, where we could walk into the market, the hotel, the theatre and even the homes of 30,000 ancient Greeks, Romans, Turks, and pirates. I'm not sure about that last one, but I do know that the entire island was massacred about 2000 years ago by an emporer from Asia who was concerned that the Roman empire would continue to expand his way, so in a preventative measure, he wiped out the Roman colony on Delos.

Mykonos is a beautiful town with streets that meander in every direction. It is incredibly easy to get lost here. The town was actually designed to thwart pirate attacks (I think this is actually the story where I meant to talk about pirates). The residents figured that if their streets followed no pattern whatsoever, pirates would get lost and eventually stop attacking and sit down for a gyro at a local store. To this day, the meandering streets are still filled with tourists.

The food at our hotel has been amazing this week. Last night we celebrated Alex's birthday with a delicious chocolate and strawberry cake, and some candles that didn't want to stay lit with the wind blowing through the open windows of our beachfront restaurant. We also had grilled cheese. I was a bit concerned when I first saw the menu, but when it came out, I realized that "grilled cheese" in Greece is actually a piece of salty cheese that they literally place on the grill. Makes sense. We should start calling our version "grilled bread with cheese inside" because we are really really the ones misleading people. Besides, Greek grilled cheese is much better.

It's hard to believe that our time in Mykonos is almos over. We head back to Athens tomorrow and then we are off to Italy on Saturday. I'll let you all know how that goes!

Our Last Day in Delphi

Today marks our last day in Delphi. It's been a welcome relaxing break for most of our students, but I think many are quite excited for the move tomorrow to Mykonos.

During our time in Delphi, we've had a chance to check out some great shops and restaurants, and several of our students have discovered some great gyro places...although, the correct pronunciation is still a challenge for many of us. I'm pretty sure we've got it down to "yee-ro", although the friendly Greek restaurant owners are more than happy to put some meat, tzatziki sauce, vegetables, and french fries on a pita if you ask for a "j-eye-ro".

Yes, that's right, they put fries on everything here. That being said, the Greeks make delicious fries. It must be the olive oil that they cook them in. This reminds me, olive oil is only to be used for two things: cooking fries, and dressing a salad. Mr.Lawlor found out the hard way that he was not to use olive oil as a dip for his bread. A very concerned, and formal server at our hotel restaurant in Athens abruptly interrupted a generous swipe of bread across Mr.Lawlor's plate with a kind, yet stern "Excuse me sir, but the olive oil is meant for the salad". You should have seen the look on the server's face when Mr.Lawlor began dipping his bread in the salad! I joke, of course. Mr.Lawlor has very strong opinions about salad being a waste of his eating time. He doesn't go near the stuff.

We have also mastered our bartering skills, with several students managing to negotiate some great deals on Greek souvenirs. The art of walking away works very well, as does the art of paying in cash.

Students are in class today, in a room above the restaurant where we eat dinner in Delphi. The classroom overlooks the Gulf of Corinth (the photo above is from my hotel room, but the view from the classroom is the same). Hopefully the beautiful scenerey is more inspiring than distracting! Tomorrow we are off on a relatively long travel day to Piraeus (the port in Athens) and then a highspeed ferry to the island of Mykonos. I'll post again once we are settled in Mykonos and I can find a computer. Yah! (That's "Hello" in Greek. I haven't learned "good-bye" yet, so we'll have to pretend). I use "yah" for everything though.

Greek People: "Hello, good morning!"
Ryan Harper: "Yah!" Translation: "Hello" (I do not know how to say good morning)

Greek restaurant server: "Would you like some fries?"
Ryan Harper: "Yah!" Translation: "Hello" (but I am really trying to say yes)

Greek shop keeper: "Would you like to buy this clay pot?"
Ryan Harper: "Yah!" Translation: "Hello" (but, I may have just purchased something I didn't want)

Delphi

We have now arrived in Delphi. It is a big change of pace from Athens. Delphi is a very small town located in the mountains of Greece. Did you know that Greece is 80% mountains? This was news to me...shameful as a Geography teacher. We had an excellent guide with us for a couple of days in Athens. His name was George and he had some great pieces of information to share with us (see above), and he was always able to keep the students' attention with a good joke here and there. At one point, on the bus, a student asked "George, where are we now?" and in the most deadpan and disgusted tone with a strong Greek accent, George replies "We are in Greece, of course!" George also told us that there is now a website where you can go and listen to any song you can think of. Then he started naming off some favourites: "Gloria Gaynor...(long pause)..." He couldn't really think of anybody else worth listening to.

Also while in Athens, we were able to visit the Temple of Poseidon at the Cape Sounion Temples, the large Archeological Museum in Athens, and we spent a full day at the ancient Theatre of Epidaurus where the acoustics are so good that from the very back of this 15,000 seat venue you can hear an actor speaking on the stage without any electronic amplification equipment. Several of our students recited monologues on the stage; definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity. After Epidaurus, we visited the ruins at Mycenae, and Agememnon's Tomb. For many, the best part of the tomb was the fact that it was underground and the walls were cool to the touch. It was 38 celcius outside, so we were getting pretty warm by this point.

Delphi has been great so far. Our view is spectacular. I do not have my camera cable with me, but I found a photo online that someone had taken from a balcony at our hotel. This is what many of our students see from their rooms: http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/00/13/78/17/view-from-the-balcony.jpg Quite stunning.

Perhaps the only challenges we have faced are related to the different types of insects that can be found in this country. Late last night I heard a terrified scream coming from one of our girls' rooms. Concerned about their safety, I rushed over to see what was going on, only to discover that a rather large bug had entered their bedroom when they had the patio door open. Fortunately the hotel staff are good at dealing with terrified Canadians and they took care of the problem immediately.

That's all for now. Hope everyone's doing well back home. Talk to you soon.

Ryan

Athens

We have arrived in Athens, after what seemed like the longest day of travel. We ended up getting delayed for a couple of hours on the tarmac during our transfer at Rome. There was a big storm in Athens, so this likely caused the delay.

After being awake for almost 36 hours, we finally made it to bed on our first night, and everyone was out in no time.

On our first day of classes, we began the day by visiting the Acropolis and the Ancient Agora. Good thing we went in the morning because I was making sweat puddles everywhere I stood. It would have been awfully hot later in the day. It's been 35 degrees each day so far, and they're calling for 37 tomorrow, and 38 the next day...I don't like this trend...hopefully we get out of Athens before it reaches 40!

The Acropolis was really exciting to see. We spent some time learning about the ancient Greeks and the city that once existed on the land where the Acropolis ruins now remain. We did our best to take pictures of the Parthenon that did not include much scaffolding or machinery...It really doesn't look authentic with a giant crane parked in the middle of the Parthenon. It does help to explain how those ancient Greeks were such efficient builders though; their cranes look just like ours!

Ok, we are heading out to the archeological museum and then down to the Mediteranean this afternoon to check out a really cool Temple, and the water. Send us some cool air! I'll keep you all posted again soon.

Ryan

Two days till departure!

Looking forward to Friday. We depart for Athens, via Rome on Friday at 5PM. See you all at the airport at 2PM

Global Journeys - Greece/Italy 2009

Welcome to the Global Journeys - Greece/Italy 2009 Travel Blog.

My name is Ryan Harper and I will be the Group/Team Leader on this summer's Greece/Italy program. I work as a secondary school Geography teacher in Mississauga, Ontario. This will be my third summer working with Global Journeys. I have previously worked on the England/Scotland/Ireland trip, both as a Group Leader and as a Teacher. This page will feature regular updates, photos and information about our travels throughout Greece and Italy during the month of July, 2009.