Originally, I came up with about 30-40 great moments I had in Greece, Rome (plus the Milan airport) and Barcelona. I was in an incredibly nostalgic mood and was evaluating my trip. However, in an attempt to keep with traditional "best of" lists, I have trimmed it down to ten. I submit them for your pleasure. They are in no particular order.
1. My adventure to Pompeii was an epic one. But before I got there, I had to take a train from Rome to Naples. I left Rome around 5 AM, by myself and a little worried. Once I got onto a train, I slept for perhaps and hour and woke up to the rolling countryside of Italy. It was a beautiful site, one that filled me with extreme happiness and joy that I was actually in Italy, one of my life long dreams.
2. After the train ride, the rest of the journey to Pompeii was not great. But, since this is a "happy" list, I wont go into that. Rather, once I arrived in Pompeii, I was in heaven. I had my audio guide, my map and my historical perspective. I was set! I proceeded to walk along the fully intact roads, enter homes, baths, stadiums, temples, etc. I saw everything I could in four hours. And since I was alone, I proceeded to let my imagination take me and pretend that I was a citizen in this ghost town. It may be weird, but I enjoyed myself! And I talked to myself.
3. Keeping with the Italian theme, my entire trip to Rome was wonderful. However, there was a specific moment when I was walking along the Via Appia that I suddenly became incredibly happy. As with my train ride to Naples, I was surrounded by absolute beauty and was walking on an ancient road which I had known about from numerous sources. My destination was the catacombs, but I took the road slowly, taking in the wonderful sights, smells and feel of Italy. It was wonderful!
4. Greece, as many of you know, erupted into violence and riots my last few weeks there over the death of a teenage boy at the hands of a corrupt and incompetent police officer. I could go on about the implications, the history of civil violence in Greece, and the other motives about these riots in great detail, but thats not the point. Since I am an overly curious person, I wanted to see these riots first hand rather than hear "booms" or yelling at a distance. I went with Ryan downtown to a scheduled demonstration, ignoring the warnings of my teachers. At first it was peaceful, but violence soon erupted and a fight between students and riot police broke out. At first it was safely in front of me at a distance. But before long it was all around me. I saw kids throw stones at police, people break down a stage set for a Christmas celebration for more ammunition, tear gas, smoke bombs, and everywhere angry people. I saw what I wanted, but got tear gassed myself before I could get out. Ryan got it worse than me, but a small amount is more than enough. Most people would think this a bad memory, but not me!
5. In Athens, Psyiri is a wonderful neighborhood full of hipster bars and clubs. At first glance it is dirty and probably looks unsafe with the huge graffiti and seemingly broken down buildings. But thats just the scene they like. One night, after having too much to drink and successfully hopped at least 10 bars, Allison and I ran into a friend of ours from the American embassy. He was our age, drunk and with a girl from the other American school in Athens. Allison and I (mainly Allison) proceeded to be large cock blocks the entire night as we stuck with them wherever they went and even got a cab back with them. The greatest moment, (Allison)"Hey, do you guys want to go get some hookah?" The reply was a simultaneous "Yeah!" from the guy and a "No," from the girl. Our work there was done.
6. As our departure back to the States was getting closer, Allison and I wanted to have one last trip up to the Acropolis for sentimental reasons and I had never actually taken any pictures! As we left, we were slightly getting on each others nerves, but once we got to the top we had a blast. Since the riots were still going on, hardly any tourists were there. We snapped some pictures of the buildings but then turned to have a photo shoot of ourselves on the Acropolis. We even found a stray cat who I kept trying to put up on the wall so I could take a picture of it, but it got scared once it saw the steep fall and kept trying to get away from me. Our laughter could be heard all over the Acropolis.
7. The breast cancer event will live in infamy. A few of us had volunteered for the event at the request of our teacher. It began with a lot of talking, which we understood nothing since it was all in Greek. After that, a short theatrical piece was put on with some singing. Again, we had no comprehension of what was going though I thought it was corny and weird to include it at a breast cancer event. However, I noticed a guy in the group who was noticeably cute and gay for that matter. But I forgot it as our duty came up. We were instructed to carry appetizers for the recession like servants. It was crazy. Greeks love their food and the moment they saw us carry it, and they knew it was free, people were swarming us. We tried our best to distribute the food as evenly as possible, but it was hard when four elderly ladies hoarded all the food in a corner and yelled at you if you didn't bring them more. Once the clamor died down a bit, we sat back and rested. We noticed that guy from the stage before sitting with his friends. All of my friends urged me to go talk to him, so I concocted a way to. I kept bringing him food to which he claimed I was trying to make him fat. Later, as I was standing alone with some food and all my friends watching, he came up to me and asked me out on a date, to which I happily said yes. We drank all the rest of the wine that night and went back home. Oh what a night!
8. Perhaps I should have put these in chronological order... Anyway, on our first weekend in Greece, our school brought us to an island called Kea. It was remote and barren, but we were determined to have fun. The first night, there was an arranged beach party. The night consisted of many different antics, dancing, and school sponsored drinking. The night for me was spent with Allison and Rachel, who I had not known for long. The three of us got along very well that night and had a wonderful time. We ended up sleeping together in the same bed, though the girls said I was horrible since I talked and stole all the blankets. It is funny, but by the end of the semester, it ended up being just Allison and I, since Rachel slowly got on our nerves after awhile. I feel bad for kind of ditching her, but we will always have that night.
9. Again, the first week of being in Athens my apartment and the other apartment in our building with students from our school had dinner every night and ended with some wine on the roof as we watched the stars, the Acropolis and got to know each other. That first week was so wonderful since it was drama free, and we all loved each other. As you can tell by the past tense, it didn't stay that way for long, but thats another story. One night in particular, I had finally told them I was gay. We were discussing relevant topics, and I had had too much wine for my own good. When describing my distaste for vaginas, I mentioned that they reminded me of sarlacc pits. Everyone was confused since no one knew what those were. I explained that they were the huge pits in Star Wars in the desert that eat people up, especially in the scene when Jaba the Hutt tries to kill Luke Skywalker by throwing him in one. They have horned looking teeth and are vicious looking. Everyone bursted into laughter and sarlacc became an instant inside joke and was frequently invoked.
10. As I looked down the Corinthian Canal, which happens to be 206 feet deep, I wondered why I was here. I remembered that I had almost missed this opportunity by being too exhausted from my partying the night before, but thinking that I may never have the chance again I decided to tough it up. Everyone began to countdown and I knew I had no other choice. I could feel my heart beating in my chest and I contemplated crying, but decided against that too. The bungee was weighing down on my feet, almost dragging me before I chose to jump. When it came to zero, I leapt as far out as I could and instantly thought, "What the fuck did I just do?" Everything else was a blur.
Photo by Michael Wood! The entrance of the catacombs from the Via Appia
