Thursday, May 29th, 2014: Our final day in Athens

            Today was a day much like any other day, with the one exception being that is was our last. Before I get started I would like to mention that prior to this trip, most of us only knew one or two other people but seventeen days later we have grown incredibly close and it is my group members who I wish to thank for making this trip what it is. I would also like to thank Professor Ryan for everything he provided before and during the trip, there truly is not an greater professor in my eyes.

Our final day began early, with an 8AM meeting time in the lobby. The group met briefly with Nike (pronounced Nikki), who was our guide for most of Greece, prior to her joining us for our hike up the Acropolis. On the walk there we walked on the old road upon which the “tripodon” was found. The tripodon translates to “Street of Tripods”, which were awarded to the actors in the theater district. We followed this road all the way to the base of the Acropolis, joined the while time by Nike’s dog Ino, whom we left at the entrance.

 The walk up to the Acropolis started on the south side, where the old road led us to the amphitheater dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine and theater. The amphitheater itself was mostly complete and was wasn’t original had been filled in with new marble. We were able to walk up one of the aisles of the amphitheater onto the road that the people of ancient Athens took up to the top of the Acropolis. On our way up to the top we passed multiple caves and other sorts of holes carved into the side of the hill, which used to hold anything from statues of the gods to altars where soldiers would swear their lives to Athens.

We reached the top of the Acropolis, surrounded by a couple hundred other people. The first view of the top of the Acropolis brought us the most famous structure in all of Athens, the Parthenon. Back in ancient Athens, the Parthenon was a giant temple dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the citizens considered their patron goddess.

The rest of the Acropolis held multiple different santcuaries that had been uncovered over the years, as well as the old Temple of Athena. Hidden behind the older temple was the olive tree, which according to legend, was a gift from the goddess herself and the reason the city is called Athens. Everything started to become a little crowded as we made or way down from the Acropolis so we hustled over to the near by museum of the Acropolis before it became too crowded.

Inside of this museum were all the relics that had been recovered from the top of the Acropolis, including muktilple pieces of the eastern and western pediments of the Parthenon. After we did a short tour of the museum, we said good-bye to Nike because she was leaving us to work on a presentation that she was giving the following day.

Following our lunch in the Monastiraki section of Athens we headed back to the hotel to rest before Prof. Ryan’s associate Dr. Dakaia Chatziefstahiou gave us a short lecture on Olympism.

Dakaia gave a very thorough lecture on the nature of Olympism and what it meant to Coubertin and the current members of the IOC. We then wrapped up our trip, each of us sharing what we got out of it, and Prof. Ryan announced the winners of the scavenger hunt, with Alex, Mike, and Jess winning with a score of 46, the most by an Olympic Odyssey team ever.

Our meeting concluded, we headed out to dinner, a place called “Lontus”, that had a wonderful view of the Acropolis at night. After dinner we somehow managed to get free dessert for what seemed like the fifteenth time on the trip, and we finally got Prof. Ryan a small birthday cake with a candle to celebrate his birthday from the previous week.

Our night wrapped up with a trip to a rooftop bar near our hotel, where we all enjoyed an adult beverage and said good-bye to Dakaia before heading back to our rooms and packing for our return trip.

As I said before, today was a great day but it was a very sad day as well, because none of us wanted to leave. To be short, I shall never forget this trip, or the people who joined me on it. It was definitely an Olympic experience.

            

Wednesday 5/28/14 Athens, Greece

Γειά σου από την Αθήνα!

(Hello from Athens!)

Today we had our first breakfast in our last city, Athens! We ate at the hotel and the breakfast was unfortunately the worst of all. After breakfast we went to the Olympic Park from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. We watched a video about the main stadium and then we went on the field and around the track. We were then going to go to the basketball arena, but the professional team was having practice so we could not get in. After the Olympic park, we stopped very quickly at the handball stadium from the Games which has been deserted for the last decade since the Olympics. It was sad to see something that wasn’t planned well and maintained that is now ruined.

We then took the bus to the Archeological museum. We had lunch at a great outdoor restaurant and then went to the museum. After the museum we went back to the hotel to finally get ready to go to the beach! 

We had to take the tram ride there, and Professor Ryan told us it would only take 15-20 minutes. However, the trip took an hour at least. When we finally hit a stop at the beach I wanted to jump off and go right into the water, but we were told to get off at the last stop and the boys did not want to get off. The beach looked great and the sun was out with a lot of people there swimming and eating and having a great time. But the bad thing about being 1 of 2 girls on a trip with 7 guys means that the girls never get listened to and we have to follow whatever the boys say, even when they are wrong. So we stayed on the tram until the last stop and got off at the worst beach any of us had ever been to. We expected a beautiful Greek beach, and what we saw was a beach that had gravel for sand, was right next to the highway and the tram, had garbage everywhere, had barely any people on it, and the water was full of huge boulders and garbage. This did not make any of us happy especially since it was already 5:00 pm and we pretty much missed the sun and a good beach day. So we were all mad, especially me, after I said we should’ve gotten off at the good stop and instead we stayed on the tram for 20 more minutes and were at this awful beach. But we tried to make the most of it and we laid our towels down on the gravel dirt sand and I even went swimming because all I wanted to do this trip was swim in Greece so I went in the boulder and garbage filled water. But right when I went in of course Kyle, Alex, and Chan called and said there was a better beach 5 minutes away so we should go there. So the rest of us packed up our stuff and went to the new beach, which was better. I jumped right in again, especially since it was around 6:00 now and kept getting later and the sun kept getting weaker. The water had rocks in it but it was much better than the other beach. This beach actually had people on it! We were then there for a couple of hours hanging out on the beach in Greece. 

We went to dinner at this restaurant on the water that was absolutely amazing. We went right during sunset and saw our first sunset of the trip, which happened to be a beautiful Greek one. We ate dinner outside on this beautiful cliff at a lounge table overlooking the sea. We had an awesome dinner with great food and just an amazing time. The night turned out very well after the first beach incident. We then went back to the hotel and went to the roof and met Professor Ryan and looked out across Athens lit up at night. We all hung out and ended the night under the starry sky of Athens, Greece.

See you later Europe, I’ll miss you very much!!

Jess <3

First Day in Athens

     Today started with an early morning visit to the Hellenic Education and Research Center where we saw many rare and ancient artifacts. Our tour guide Nike (pronounced Nicky) showed us all of the important pieces that she felt best described Greece during the introduction of the Olympic Games. The statues were magnificent, the jewelry was elegant, and the weaponry was magnificent. I was moved and inspired by the history that I was being emerged in. To think about the evolution of the olympics from 776 B.C to present times is truly amazing. They've gone from a 100 meter dirt race to a worldwide sporting event. I feel so lucky and blessed to have been given the opportunity to see everything I have seen.

     After that visit we set out on our return journey to Athens. We hoped that this four hour bus ride would have less struggles than our first one and luckily we came out unscathed. As we pulled into Athens I'll admit that it was a tad underwhelming. The buildings were rundown and there was graffiti almost everywhere. But P Ry informed us that the street we drive down is the dirtiest in the city and that everything else we'd be seeing would be gorgeous. We arrived at our hotel and thanked the heavens that our rooms had air-conditioning. After unpacking and settling in, we held a group meeting for about 20 minutes to get the lay of the land and figure out our plan for the rest of the day. We decided to meet up again at 4 to walk around and see a few sights. Our first stop was the Marble Stadium. Professor gave us a brief history lesson about it, explaining to us how it had been built in ancient times for sporting events but then most of the rock was taken away to be used for building houses. Then it was rebuilt in the 20th century and finished in 2004. Parliament was also really exciting to see as we made comparisons between it and our own Capitol Building. Once we were sufficed with our first day walk around Athens we set back down to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

     Dinner was quite possibly the best meal that I've had this entire trip. We met up with P Ry's associate Dikaia who works closely with the IOC in her studies of both modern and ancient Olympics. She joined us for our meal and we all had a great time. We ordered more appetizers than I care to remember and everything was so delicious.  Once it came time for the main course Kyle and I decided to take on the Mixed Grill. It is a combination of chicken, lamb, hamburger, and sausage along with french fries and pita bread. The plate is meant to feed up to five people and I'm proud to say the two of us polished it off. Desert wasn't far behind and after that we walked our new friend back to her car.

     Athens was amazing so far and we hadn't even seen everything that the city had to offer us. I'm glad to call this the last leg of our trip around Europe.

 Golden Coin from Olympia

Nike: Goddess of Victory

 Marble Stadium

P Ry Action Shot

5/28/14 2004 Olympic Site

Today our first full day in the warm city of Athens started off on the later side. We headed down to breakfast around 8:45-9am and then waited for our extreme knowledgable translator and archeological guide Nikki. Once she arrived in the lobby we were off to the site of the 2004 Olympics in Athens. This site was about 20-30 minutes out of the center of town and along the way Nikki and Professor Ryan pointed out some landmarks in the city. Once we arrived on site the bus drove around the site which is very condensed compared to the site in London. We were able to see most of the building where events took place but our main focus was the stadium. The stadium hosted the opening and closing ceremonies along with track and field events and soccer. Once in the stadium we met our guide who showed us a video about the history of the stadium prior to the Olympics along with the somewhat of a "legacy" post Olympic competition. After the video we were able to enter the stadium and walk around the track and get an inside view of the stadium. It was exciting to stand on the track where Olympic competition took place.


Our next stop was lunch outside the Greek museum of archeology. This museum hosts most of the most famous archeological finds of Greece from the time period of the Minoan period through the Roman period. Here I also discovered my paper topic while looking through the exhibit of The Antikythera Shipwreck. Prior to this exhibit I have never heard of the wreck that was discovered in 1900 and was announced to the world only about 30-40 years ago. I have always been interested in shipwrecks and Professor Ryan and I decided that this would be an excellent research paper topic for this course. After looking through most of the exhibits and listening to Nikki explain the major artifacts it was time to head to the beach for a little afternoon relaxation. 

The beach was very nice the water was warm and we all enjoyed ourselves. Later we ate at the restaurant next door on the point and got the opportunity to watch the sunset set. We finished off the 
night hanging out on the roof top of the hotel with everyone and looking forward to tomorrow.

Michael Gutman

Pix Paris

Pix Travel Day (Paris to Lausanne)

Pix Train Travel (London to Paris)

Pix London II (a bit late...sorry)

Day in Olympia

     Today was our first full day in Olympia after the LONG travel day from Lausanne.  We woke up extra early trying to beat the tourist crowd to the archaeological sites.  Nike was a huge help translating and teaching us about Greek culture while we walked throughout the Altis.  It was amazing to see all the different sites like where the Olympics first started and the Temples of Zeus and Hera.  The first Olympic race took place in Olympia which kicked off the ancient games.  A few of us decided to race when we got to the stadium.  In the end Kyle won the race because we were confused about where the finish line was so we stopped too early until Professor Ryan yelled," Keep going!"  We learned about everything having to do with Greek ideologies along with a little bit of Roman.  By the end of the day all of us were able to locate and name every part of the ancient site of Olympia.

     After taking in all of the heat and history of the Greek sanctuary we headed to the air conditioned museum.  Here we got to look at the sculptures and statues removed from the site like the famous statue of Hermes and the two pediments of the temple of Zeus.  I found it very interesting that the east pediment told the tale of the contest between Pelops and Oinomaos with Zeus standing in the middle dividing the two sides.  Nike pointed out that the reason why none of the figures are touching was because of the tension between the two sides.  You can see the statues in the image below.  It's mind-boggling to think that these massive pieces of artwork had so much meaning behind the huge shell limestone.

     Once we got the academic stuff out of the way we went to go eat and swim in the pool.   Professor Ryan took us to a great place to eat on the way back to the hotel.  It was a great meal with an outstanding price compared to Lausanne.  The pool at our hotel was exactly what we needed on a hot day like today (but a diving board would have been nice).

     With one more day in Olympia before we head to Athens I am overly excited to see what happens the last days on the trip! Check for updates on the blog to see what adventures we go on in this final week!

The way to the musuem and archeological site

Temple of Hera

Mike overlooking the ancient stadium

East pediment of the Temple of Zeus

Olympia

It was a busy day in Olympia! We got an early start at the ancient olympic site. This was home to the oldest stadium in the world, housing the first footrace ever recorded. We all walked/ran the "track" and it was very cook to see the original starting and finishing lines intact. 

Our tour guide/Greek translator, Nike, showed us around the rest of the ancient park, which included the sacred Temple of Hera, Temple of Zeus, treasuries, work shop of Pheidas, and many more centuries old sites. It was amazing to see all of the things that we've been talking about in class for months. For me, however, I was surprised by how incomplete these buildings looked. Considering that these sites are from 776 B.C.E (at least), it's silly to have expected anything completed and preserved, but from visiting the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and the British Museum London, I was so accustomed to the recreated buildings that I was a little caught off guard when we arrived. The pillars and buildings that were still standing were absolutely amazing. It was a really breathe-taking experience as a sport management student standing where the first sporting event took place. 

(Fallen column off the Temple of Zeus; the standing pillar is just a model) 

(Temple of Zeus)

(Temple of Hera)

After walking around the ancient sites, we headed over to the site's archeological museum. This was filled with artifacts that came directly from the site. One of the coolest exhibits was of the statues that told a story on the East and West end of the Temple of Zeus. These would have been found in the upper triangle area on the temple. It caught my eye because of the levels of the statues and it's massive size. Another favorite part was seeing the iconic helmets and shields used during battles. 

We then walked back to the hotel and hung out in the pool. We had a great afternoon of swimming, tanning, and pool football (the boys all think this should be an Olympic event). 

To finish off the day, we had ate a traditional Greek dinner at a restaurant in town. We had Spanish pies, stuffed zucchini, moussaka, tdziki, and much more. Everything was delicious and I walked away stuffed! I've learned that the best way to say goodbye to a city is to eat until our hearts are content! Olympia has treated us well, goodbye to this historic city and our new friend, Zeus. 

10 Ways Switzerland is not the United States

So my original day to blog was supposed to be last Wednesday aka our travel day from Paris to Lausanne but my good buddy Matt took care of that so as opposed to repeating what he covered,  I'm going to do something different. What I'm going to do will take a look of our trip to Switzerland as a whole.

This might seem a little radical to some, others may call for a retraction and demand my immediate departure from the trip but I beg that you stay with me...This may be a game-changer.

10 Ways that Switzerland is not the United States

This is a list on the ways Switzerland is different from United States, from 10-1 with 10 being a noticeable difference and 1 being an drastic difference.

10) Late dinner

Picture this, we arrive in Lausanne on Wednesday after a full day of travel. None of us has had a lot to eat outside of a small breakfast and maybe some sort of sandwich for lunch. There were some of us(me) who had only managed to scarf down two breakfast bars on the train and were on the verge of passing out by the time we got to Lausanne. To our complete and utter horror, we discovered that the residents in Lausanne and Switzerland as a whole did not eat dinner until 8PM at the earliest. Considering we arrived at our hotel at 3:30, waiting until 8PM was definitely not an option.

9) Scooters/Rollerblades 

I’m not going to hide the fact that people in Switzerland are skinny. It’s not because of their portion size but because of their excessive use of both scooters and rollerblades. I lost count of how many people, who were clearly older than me, that were riding their Razor scooters to work. The same goes with rollerblades, who swerve in and out of people on the sidewalk like a game of Frogger. Say what you will about them, the early 2000’ s never seem to have left Switzerland.

8) Cigarettes

I love Switzerland, I really do. I love the sites, the history, and the fact that you can walk in the same direction and find something new every time. What I hate though is the amount of cigarettes that these people seem to smoke. Most people have never smelled the air near Lake Geneva, but it’s safe to say that I’ve never had cleaner air. Except for when the person next to me is powering through a pack of cigarettes. Drives me up the wall.

7) Traffic Rules

This entry on my list simply because from what I witnessed, there are no rules. People can go whatever speed they choose and pretty much wherever they choose. There were times when our group had pretty much go into stores because the people where driving on “streets” so narrow they had to be sidewalks. We also had a five way stop near our hotel where no one really stopped and the amount of illegal U-turns pulled was through the roof. But to be honest, I’m from New Jersey so this was actually a step-up.

6) Cars

Remember the cartoons where something shocking would happen and the character’s eyes would pop out of his or her head? Yeah that was me every five minutes in Switzerland. Now I’m not a huge car guy but I know when a car is really nice and really expensive. Some of the cars I saw in Switzerland were worth more than I could sell my body parts for.

5) Breakfast

This one can pretty much be attributed to all of Europe but Switzerland was worse than the others. Most of what we were able to have for breakfast consisted of toast, nutella, coffee, and cereal. There were the occasional breakfast croissants that made the whole thing bearable but one of my first stops when I get back to the states is a diner for some 24-hour American breakfast food.

4) Drinking at 18

Some might think that this is a little too low on my list but by the time we got to Switzerland it wasn’t really new to us anymore. That being said, our first night in Lausanne ended in Mike Gutman, Bryson, Alex, and I drinking a 5L tube of beer between the four of us. So as not to mince words or reveal any details, we made the most of ability to order alcohol with our real IDs.

3) The scenery

I don’t know how to say this outside of like this: Switzerland was oh-my-god beautiful. We walked out of our hotel to a breathlessly gorgeous shot of the Swiss Alps. Everywhere we went we had to stop and take photos because every time we saw the mountains they looked even more spectacular. Taking the opportunity to hike the Alps was a decision that I’ll never regret.

2) ½ English, ½ French

England: a lot of English speakers. France: 75% English speakers. Switzerland: 50% English speakers. Switzerland was a land of beauty and wonder but there was definitely a communication barrier. They surprisingly spoke less English than the French did, but those who did speak English were fluent. We struggled through it but all in all it turned out pretty well, including getting free dessert at one of the restaurants we ate at.

1) Money/Pricing

By far the biggest difference in Switzerland was the money and their extensive use of it. The Swiss are a great people and they have a great country but they tax the hell out of everything you buy. That tax then gets added to the already ridiculously expensive pricing. That pricing is in the Swiss Franc, a currency that the American dollar has a 1:1.12 conversion rate to. If that isn’t a good enough example of their money, their smallest bill is a 10 and most banks don’t take you let out less than 100 at a time. Absolutely ridiculous.

In the end, we all loved Switzerland and as soon as they lower their price, I will  be running back to visit.

Arrival in Greece

Professor Ryan had told us that this would be the day from hell.  And, for the most part, he was right.

But no warning could prepare us for a full day's worth of traveling, as we all soon found out.

Right form the start, I knew we were in for a rough day. We woke up bright and early to board a bus from Lausanne to the airport in Geneva at 8:00 a.m., and since breakfast at the Lausanne hotel did not open until 8:00 a.m., we had to quickly take our breakfast out of the dining room and bring it with us on the bus.  I managed to hastily grab a croissant and a small box of cereal.  The ride to the Geneva airport took about 45 minutes.  During the drive, we were able to catch a glimpse of Mount Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps.

The Geneva airport experience was a nightmare.   We arrived at the airport and went over to check in our bags.  We got in line just in time, because the the length of the line behind us grew to a monstrous size.  I am not exaggerating when I say that there must have been at least 200 people in line behind us. It was definitely an apocalyptic sight to behold.  For some reason, the check-in desks were serving about five to six different airlines instead of just one, which seemed very ill-conceived.  Adding to the traumatic experience was the the fact that I was asked by the check-in attendant to go pay for my luggage at a different station, and then come back to claim my boarding pass.  As I went through this brutally inefficient process, I thought I would lose my sanity.  

After I had finally claimed my boarding pass, I went through security.  Then (and I'm not kidding), it was a fifteen minute walk to the gate.   Our Aegean Air flight took off at roughly 11:15 a.m. and we landed in Athens, Greece a little after 3 p.m.  To put it mildly, the flight was not pleasant.  The cabin was smelly, the food was strange-looking, and the group of people behind us were making a lot of noise.  In addition, one of our group was being bothered by the passenger behind him for trying to recline his seat, and another member of our group had trash spilled on him. 

               

I was relieved when we finally got off the plane in Athens.  We collected or luggage, then hopped on a small bus that would take us to Olympia.  During this this time, we met up with our guide, Nike.  During our time in Greece, Nike will help us in translating Greek, and is an expert on the history of Ancient Greece.  At the start of the bus ride, Nike gave us a quick lecture on how Ancient Greek athletics were an important factor in bringing about democracy and western values.  

About an hour into the drive, we stopped for lunch.  We had lamb kabobs, which were very good.  At this stop, we also observed the Corinth Canal, which divides the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland.

The bus ride was fairly pleasant until we reached the Gulf of Corinth.  Then the wheels fell off, literally.  I was relaxing and listening to some Greek pop music, when all of a sudden, the bus started to violently bounce up and down.  We pulled over on the side of the road to inspect the damage.  It turned out that that one of the tires blew out.  The tire was absolutely ravaged and needed to be replaced.  This really was the day from hell.  It took about an hour, but luckily Professor Ryan and the driver were able to replace the tire and call for roadside assistance.  We boarded the bus and were back in business.  

Thankfully, nothing too dramatic happened for the remainder of the trip, and we arrived at the Olympia hotel at about 10 p.m.  Despite all the issues, the day ended on a high note.  The hotel was really nice, and we ordered delicious pita sandwiches for a late dinner.  

It was certainly a day I will not soon forget.