Grecian Odyssey, A Student's View (Day 9)

The Honors Program just completed its Grecian Odyssey tour, where thirty-five students and two staff members traveled to Greece from May 6th through the 16th. We asked our students to blog about the journey, so each day is written from the perspective various students.  Today's post includes contributions from Ellissa Chambliss, a sophomore English major; and Molly Madill, a sophomore double majoring in Forensic Biology and Toxicology.  We hope you enjoy reading about our journey!

As our trip was coming to a close, we had a couple of free days in Athens to do as we chose. For the first day, Dr. Swanson proposed going to one of the nearby Grecian islands for a day as a whole group, which we very quickly agreed to. After figuring out ferry rides, we decided to travel to the Aegina Island, or as they call it in Greece, Egina. Many other islands had been thrown into the mix of ideas on where to go but Aegina was fairly close and wouldn’t take a whole day just to get there. A ferry ride was scheduled to take nearly an hour to get to the island but we ended up taking a boat called the “Flying Dolphin,” which only took 30 minutes. The ferry was not what we were expecting, since a lot of us were picturing a traditional ferry, with seating on a deck region. This ferry looked like a submarine and we were inside a cabin-type area. It was really neat to try yet another mode of transportation that was different to us. I fell asleep on the way to Aegina so I’m not sure exactly what it was like, but it was fast!

After getting off of the boat, Becky and Dr. Swanson set us free with a meeting time and location. We struggled a bit as we started our day on the island, since we didn't know where we were going and people started to get agitated. My large group of nearly 12 people started heading in any direction that we could until we reached a point where we were walking on the road. Greek drivers are crazy so none of us felt safe walking in such a large group on the side of the road. Ultimately, we turned around and separated into two smaller groups so we’d be easier to manage. At this point, after walking aimlessly on the side of the road, many of us were hungry and grumpy. When we finally arrived back into the small town part of Aegina, we found a seafood restaurant to curb our appetites and allow anyone who wanted to try island seafood to get that opportunity. I had chicken souvlaki, a really good kebab-like chicken dish, with olive oil fried fries. I also tried kalamari, figuring it’d be better the fresher it was, and a little bit of octopus. Both of those dishes were “must eats” for Greece, so I was compelled! They were delicious.

We split into smaller groups and my group decided to look in some shops. A lot of them were similar to ones we saw on the mainland, but we found a few that were unique, including plenty of stores and stands that carried pistachios. Apparently they are known for their pistachios, and they tasted really good!

From there, we went on a hunt for a nearby beach. On the way, we ran into another small group of us at a different beach. They packed up their things and followed us to the beach we were headed to, just down the road. The water was amazing, clear, and blue. Walking in a few hundred feet, the depths leveled out and only hit me at about mid-thigh. I could walk around and see for miles ahead of me. I wanted to test how far out I could walk, because it seemed like forever, but it was too chilly. Eventually, another group of students and Becky came to the beach. We found sea urchins, crabs, anemone, and some weird red blob that I still haven’t figured out. A friend and I walked farther down the beach to discover what appeared to be more ruins from a previous structure, almost like a base to a building. On the way to the beach was a set of ruins for a temple and I’d be willing to bet they were related. We couldn’t walk down all of it because of the urchins but it was absolutely beautiful. After we dried off and left the beach, we got gelato. To finish out the day, we did a little bit of shopping. We rode the “Flying Dolphin” back, which made me a little seasick, since I was awake for the return trip, and made it back into Kalamaki to eat dinner at the hotel. We finished the night playing cards, one of our favorite things to do. Overall, our excursion to the island was definitely worth it, and I wish there were more close islands we could've explored!