On Adventures in Greece Part II

In which a trip up a hill takes a disastrous turn, but ultimately ends positively

On our second day in the city we took a bus tour around different parts of the city which was really cool because we got to see a lot of the city all at once. But sucked at the same time because were seeing all these really cool streets and locations and couldn't get off the bus and explore them¹. I did my best to take what pictures I could, but it was very difficult. I got a couple of good shots though.

Here's one

As the tour went along we slowly made our way up a hill to the oldest part of the city which is still surrounded by an ancient wall. As we crested the hill the entirety of Thessaloniki stretched out in front of us in a beautiful panorama. I knew that trying to snap off a quick pic would be futile so I just enjoyed the view for what it was and decided to come back another day.

The very next day as it turns out.

After class the following day we were down at the city center for a walking/snacking² tour of the market. While we were at lunch I asked one of our contacts how best to make our way back up the hill to the old part of town. She told me that we simply had to hop on a city bus and it would take us right up there. Eventually. Also, it would be crowded. Like insanely crowded³.

She was NOT kidding. The buses in Greece are nuts. No matter how many people are on them more and more just cram in. It's like playing sardines with a group of hot, sweaty strangers. Needless to say our students are not huge fans of the buses. However, we hopped on and made our way up the hill. Eventually we arrived and found ourselves with this view....

It was pretty stellar. The students took a ton of shots⁴. Including some Titanic style "King of the World" shenanigans. After we were done with pictures the students wanted to hit up some souvenir shops before we wandered a bit. I didn't have much interest in that so I kind of meandered about, killing time. I was taking some pictures of the wall when a student came out and kind of slumped down on the curb. I went over to see what was happening and looked up at me and said, "My wallets gone."

She had been pick pocketed on the bus.

They got her driver's licence, her debit cards, and all the money she had for the trip.

It was absolutely devastating.

This is one of those things that, as the instructor, you realize is always a possibility, but you never really prepare yourself for. We sat there for a while on side of the street while she cried. Then we talked about the next steps and I helped her to make the necessary calls home. It was the toughest thing I've had to deal with on either of these study abroad trips. For many students something like this happening would have absolutely ruined their trip, but this student in particular is very tough, and while her day was pretty much shot to shit she's told me she not going to let it ruin her trip. Even shorty after realizing her wallet was gone she soldiered on as we descended the hill.

While we rode the bus up to the wall we decided to return to the hotel by walking. Thankfully Thessaloniki is on the coast, and our hotel is only two blocks from the water. So all you need to do is keep walking to the water and then make sure it's on your right. This gave us the freedom to wander nearly aimlessly back down the hill. On our way down we took some short cuts through, basically, some backyards, and took what appeared to be a locals only shortcut behind a cemetery. It was actually a very nice walk back, though when all was said and done we had walked 6.3 miles that day.

What hit me the most about the city during our walk down the hill was the crazy time paradoxes you encounter with the various structures. At one point we were waiting next to a 4th century Roman arch, which was across the street from some apartments from the 1970's⁵, which sandwiched a church from 1531, directly across from a Starbucks.

What?

The history of this city is crazy. Everywhere you turn you come face to face with some new discovery. There's so much to do and the fact that it's not a big tourist city makes it that much nicer to explore. I can't wait to get back down to the city square and get lost for a few hours.

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1) I will find all those places again. You will not best me tour bus.
2) Snalking?
3) She didn't actually say insanely crowded, but it's funny to think of her saying that in her Greek accent.
4) Pictures not booze, that would come the next day.
5) I'm guessing.

On Spanish Adventures Part VI: Fruit Thieves In the Night, In the Day

In which adventures are delayed, plants are known intimately, and the world's greatest fruit is procured.

Prologue¹: Obviously I am no longer in Spain. Sadly when our trip came to an end I had only written 4.5 posts. However, there are a great many stories to tell and I would like to challenge myself to keep writing. So I am going to continue posting them. I'm currently on vacation so hopefully I'll have time to write one every day or so (though I realize I've made that promise before). From here on out I will not be writing in any sort of order. I will just be telling stories as I decide I want to tell them.

Okay, on with the show.

As you would expect with any such trip our group of 20 students and 2 staff members we naturally broke down into smaller groups. To their credit our students did an excellent job of not excluding anyone. We definitely saw people interacting with a variety of students, and everyone got along very well. But generally there were patterns that emerged. Knowing that I would be going on vacation this week and would be at the beach the whole time I did not desire to spend my afternoons at the beach. Just as I knew that I didn't want to spend all my free time shopping. Instead I wanted to see lots of different parts of town, and experience as much as I could of Valencia. This led me to spend most of my time with Emily and Kate².

I had already known them well as they had been in my classes the previous two years. This led to a lot of inside jokes, dredged up histories, and a general familiarity with one another that made for a very pleasant three weeks. Many of my stories from the trip revolve around Kate and Emily, so don't be surprised if they make a reappearance.

This particular adventure that we shared, like most of them I suppose, can be summed up with two basic tenants. Firstly: not really knowing where we were going. Secondly: photography.

In Valencia there was a botanical garden that we had heard about that we wanted to check out. So one afternoon we planned to hit up a fine arts museum for a bit then walk over to the botanical garden. The fine arts museum went off with out a hitch. We saw a TON of incredibly religious art. Emily got yelled at for trying to take pictures in the one room you weren't allowed to take pictures in. I, very sacrilegiously, recreated a painting of Jesus holding the Eucharist³. And by the end of our visit we were all pretty much over Jesus⁴. Especially after seeing multiple paintings of Mary shooting breast milk into Jesus's mouth, or the mouths of other saints and martyrs⁵.

Upon leaving the museum we started walking in the general direction of where we assumed the botanical garden was (as was our way). I checked the map and made some adjustments. Kate proceeded to give me shit for not knowing where I was going (as was her way). And eventually we made it to the garden. Or so we thought.

This botanical garden was small. Surprisingly small. And didn't have much going for it by way of flowers and the like. But according to the map the next street over was the edge, so we much have been in the right place. We wandered around, the girls (Kate, Emily, their German homestay sister, and another student) took pictures, and overall we felt a little let down by the garden. I left the group and walked around a little and noticed a rather large wall running the length of an alley. I followed it along until I found a locked gate and looked through it.

That's when I found the real botanical garden. Whoops.

So I gathered up the girls. Which was more difficult than you would think given that there were only five of them. And we started following the wall. We were all thoroughly confused about how in the world you get into this place when we finally came across the entrance. Excitedly the turned to go into the garden when we were informed of two important things. A, it cost money to get in. And b, they would be closing in 30 minutes anyway.

Whomp whomp.

As usual our plan was going arie.

We talked to the lady working the ticket both and she informed us that we could enter the garden the next day for free. So we decided to postpone our botanical adventure for one day.

The next day we found ourselves back in the garden. It was incredibly beautiful. There were different sections with different types of plants. There were multiple green houses and terrariums to explore. I wish that I had had more time to look around. But I did what I could. Prior to the trip I had purchased a new camera and was simultaniously trying to learn all it's features while desperately trying to remember everything that I learned in high school photography about ISO's and f-stops. Meanwhile, Emily was awkwardly laying in walking paths and grinding up on trees to get the pictures she envisioned. Kate wandered around taking pictures of all the feral cats or taking pictures of Emily taking pictures⁶.

After a time Kate and I reconnected and started walking around together. Kate wanted me to take a picture of her standing amongst some cacti.

Then this happened:

Emily found us and I took this delightful, if not slightly dark, picture:

Then may favorite part of the day occurred...

Interlude: Before I tell you about my favorite part of the day I need to give you some back story. One of the best parts about Valencia was the sheer number of fruit stands you could find. Every morning I would have some sort of fruit from a fruit stand. My first trip to buy fruit I noticed that there were these weird orange fruit that looked a little like apricots but bigger and with little brown spots on them. Eventually I decided just to buy one and check it out.

Ho-ly crap. These things were soooo good. They were tart, and sweet, and easy to eat, and I want one right now. As our trip went on I learned that in Spain they are know as nisperos (here in the states they're called loquats), and that they have a short shelf life, they don't travel well, and their season is very short. In America they only grow in the southern most part of California and dammit if I don't finally have one good reason to move to SoCal. They are the best, and I ate them all the time.

Interlude over.

As we were getting ready to leave the garden Kate mentioned that she saw trees that were growing this amazing fruit. Obviously that is where I wanted to be, so we headed in that direction. When we got there we noticed an older gentleman helping himself to some of the fruit.
Of course we were going to do the same.

So I reached up and grabbed a few of them. But they were small and somewhat lacking. I looked up and noticed all the delicious fruit just out of reach.

I casually suggested to Emily that she should get on my shoulders so we could better plunder the goodness of the garden⁷. Emily, who is always up for anything, very excitedly agreed. So I bent down, she climbed up on my shoulders, and we got to work. I would say that these pictures speak for themselves.

Botanical gardens 0 - Josh, Kate, and Emily 1⁸.

PS - Those were the best tasting of all the nispero that I had. It's true what they say, "Stolen fruit is the sweetest fruit⁹."

PPS - When we were in Toledo at the end of our trip Emily ran a short distance from the synagogue we just left and I assumed that she was trying to get one more quick picture. Instead she was stealing more fruit from a nearby tree. Good work Em.
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1) Or preamble, or introduction, or forward, or whatever the hell you want to call it.
2) While normally I refrain from mentioning students by name or including their pictures, but I asked Kate and Emily about this before I started writing. They were cool with it.
3) I held a 2 Euro coin and my cellphone.
4) This sounds worse than it is. It was more that we were over art about Jesus. Sorry Jesus, no hard feelings.
5) It was like the most upsetting carnival game ever.
6) #stroblgetstheshot
7) There's absolutely no Biblical allusion to be found here.
8) Unless you count Kate's run in with the cactus, then it was all tied up.
9) I don't know if they say it, but I just said it.

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