The early adventures…
We have have a lot of time to travel on weekends and breaks too, and everywhere I have visited has literally been paradise. So far I have been to Aegina (previously mentioned), Syros (a small Greek island with few tourists), Delphi (the site of the ancient oracle and “center of the world” according to Zeus), and Cape Sounion (The Temple of Poseidon).
Syros
Syros was one of are first trips. I went with Kristin, Molly, Elyse, Claire, Amelia, and Chris Shukla. Why Syros you might ask… 
well we missed the early ferry to Paros we intended to catch, and Syros was the cheapest ferry that was leaving in the next few hours. This lack of punctuality was such a blessing in disguise! Syros was gorgeous. It is a smaller Greek island not often visited by tourists. We spent two nights in an adorable blue and white hotel, and three days laying by the beach. While we were there, we were welcomed warmly by some για γιασ (pronounced yia yias, meaning grandmothers) sitting on their porch at 
sunset.
It is very common to see grandparents relaxing on their balconies and saying hello, but these two were especially cordial. We “spoke” with them a bit (in broken Greek and English) as they fed us Turkish candy (it reminded me of mochi, Bess you would love them) and biscotti… they later insisted we take bags of these treats home with us. Yum!
Delphi
Delphi was another fun, and very last minute trip. I arrived home from work one Friday, to find Chris Duffy, Claire, and Kristin saying pack up if you want to go to Delphi with us! Next thing I knew, after packing in a mere 10 minutes, we were off. The four of us took a 3 hour bus ride to this ancient city. According to Zeus, Delphi is the center of to world, which he discovered after releasing two eagles in opposite directions and finding that they collided at Delphi. If you ask me, it depends on where Zeus released the eagles, but I’ll let someone else bring that up with the King of the
Gods himself. For this reason, there are several “navals” at the ancient site of Delphi. The stone statues represent the bellybutton, the center of the human body, just as Delphi is the center of the world. The statue is said to be good luck if you touch it, so we did as we were told, no point in risking it!
Delphi is also the ancient site of the oracle, who was found at the Temple of Apollo. People would travel from far off lands to speak with the oracle and to receive a prophecy from her. The oracle was always a middle-aged woman, with a new one replacing her when she passed away. Archeologists later discovered the likely source of these prophecies… toxic gas fumes were released from the ground below where she sat. Basically, she was high! http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0814_delphioracle.html No wonder they were replacing the oracle so often! While we were there, we also saw the ancient Temple of Athena, ancient gymnasium, and did a 20km hike!! The hike was awesome. We followed the ancient path people used to get down to the sea, which wound through olive groves and a small town. And I must say, the fresh fruit we ate from the trees along the way was delicious.
Cape Sounion- Temple of Poseidon
Cape Sounion has been my favorite place on the mainland of Greece thus far. This is the location of the Temple of Poseidon, the god of the sea. It is also a very important site in regards to Greek mythology. It is said that Aegeus waited at the top of 
Cape Sounion for Theseus, his son, to return from Crete. Theseus had gone to Crete to slay the Minotaur. Aegeus told his son to show white sails when he returned to signal that he had been victorious and survived. If Theseus had failed and died, they were supposed to show black sails.
For one reason or another, Theseus forgot to set the white sails. His father, Aegeus, saw the black sails and overcome with grief, jumped off the cliff and into the sea a difficult task. This is said to be the reason why the sea below is now known as the Aegean Sea.
On a much lighter note, Cape Sounion is hands down the windiest place I have ever been! It is the southern most tip of the Attica peninsula in Greece. The bus ride there took us about an hour and a half… and was BEAUTIFUL!!
Pictures from Delphi, Syros, Cape Sounion, Santorini, and Ios for your enjoyment:
The beginning…
I have been in Greece since arriving with my parents on August 23rd… and I don’t think I have stopped moving since stepping off the plane. After a nice flight (during which the adorable Greek speaking flight attendant gave me her number so that we could get coffee next time she was in Athens. She also offered to give me some Greek lessons, but only in exchange for marrying her son… not so sure about that one.) Anyways, after the flight we dropped our things at the hotel and poked around Athens. The picture above is from the rooftop restaurant and bar of our hotel. We ate dinner and admired the Acropolis, which you could see from the roof and in this picture.
In the next two days we played the part of the ultimate tourists. We climbed up the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and the many other breathtaking temples, theaters, and ruins. They were absolutely stunning, despite a large portion being restored and covered with scaffolding, as was the view of Athens. I never realized just how large the city of Athens is; it sprawls out as far as the eye see, ending at the base of the hills surrounding the city. The heat was a killer on the way up, but the experience made the hike well worth it.
We also took a ferry from the port of Piraeus to the island of Aegina. Aegina is beautiful. It is the closest island to the mainland, being only 30-40 minutes form the coast and it was full of beach-like shops, Greek restaurants, and winding European alleyways. Despite being warned by locals that Aegina has felt the impact of being so close to the mainland and has become much more urban than other Greek islands, I was still quite delighted with the experience. 
The two highlights of our day there may have been during lunch…and both involved old men? The first was the Greek wedding reception we thought we had stumbled upon.
However, after further investigation, we discovered that the noisy people spilling onto the street were the result of a retirement party. 
In honor of his retirement, the old jeweler was selling all gold for half off! (sadly no purchases were made on our behalf).
The second highlight was when a little old Greek man hopped up onto his chair at a table near us, started dancing, and yelled “Opa!” several times when an accordion player came up to play at his table. Of course I caved and convinced my dad to give the accordion player a euro since he had created my first “Greek” experience!
The day we went to Aegina was the same day I moved my things into my house at the school as well as my birthday! It was so nice to be able to share my birthday with my family, rather than brand new people, in a brand new house, in a brand new country. With that said, my parents and I said our goodbyes that afternoon, I hoped on the bus, and went home to meet my new roommates. Only a few had arrived up to this point, but those who were there, Chris, Chris, Stephanie, and Allyson (all my roommates but one) went to dinner with Molly, the returning teaching fellow living in one of the apartments (four fellows live in the apartments off campus and six live in the house on campus). Molly took us to a great restaurant in Gazi, a hip neighborhood downtown. They kindly treated me to a delicious Greek dinner, wonderful conversation, and excellent company. It was a birthday certainly unlike any other, and one I won’t soon forget.
The next few days were spent unpacking, running errands to Carrefour (like a big Target!! it’s awesome!!), getting cell phones, and exploring the city. Once we finished these errands, all of which took much longer than one would think, considering we speak very little Greek (read: absolutely no Greek), during the weekend days, we began our orientation. Our orientation consisted of learning the structure of the school (there are basically two schools joined together, Psychico College and Athens College, to form the Hellenic American Educational Foundation — the middle and high schools of each are located on the main campus where I work and live, while each has it’s own elementary school campus located about 30 minutes away.) So anywho, we learned about the structure, a tid bit as to what we would be doing (each of the 10 Fellows has a separate placement, I’ll talk more about mine later…), we made reading packets for the English department, and we talked about which islands were a must see. That was the moment when I knew I had landed the dream job for a recent college grad… we were talking about where to vacation during our work orientation. I’m ready for a great year.
