... you could hear a pin drop

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

I have had my first experience with Futbol - European style! 

A couple weekends ago a small group of us traveled and watched Greece (Hellas) take on Latvia! I made sure to Google Latvia's team colors as to not get shot at the game. For those of you who don't know the seriousness of European soccer... it's serious - almost cult-like actually. We had €20 seats (about $30) and we were only 5 rows from the field! It was amazing. The fan club was absolutely nuts... complete with Spartan helmets, syncronized chanting, fire crackers and smoke bombs - for when Greece scored of course! The atmosphere is thick with excitement from the moment you enter the stadium. I don't really understand the game of soccer, but I yelled and shouted with the rest and had the best time. The cultural experience was definately worth the trip.


View from our seats!



Jessi and I

Can you tell we scored? Told you they were CRAZY!

Go Hellas!

Last weekend (16 October 2010) was our second school-sponsored excursion to Nafplio - the first capital of Greece. We toured Castle Palamidi that sits above the city, explored the city streets and had a 4 course meal at a taverna (it's unfortunate I don't like Greek food)!

Nafplio was absolutely beautiful! The whole city was serene and almost eerily quiet - it was a refreshing break from the city streets of Athens and Aghia Paraskevi. OH! The strangest thing was that while touring the castle we ran into the 3 nicest American women - my roommate and I started chatting with them... the 1 lady ending up being from Litchfield, IL!!! How crazy. What a small world - unfortunately we ran out of talk time, but I'm sure if the conversation had continued we would have been related in some way :)


View of Nafplio from the Castle of Palamidi



Castle Palamidi



Streets of Nafplio





Nafplio



 The second half of our excursion involved us travelling to the Theater of Epidaurus. The theater itself was built in the 4th c. B.C. and was designed to seat 14,000 people! The acoustics in this place are indescribable - to think that the ability and knowledge to build something this "technical" ,so many centuries ago, was possible is hard to wrap your head around. This is one of my favorite "ruins" we have been to

Theater of Epidaurus

Stairs to the top

View from the top of the theater. Our tour guide stood at the white circle in the middle and dropped a penny and we could hear it PERFECT at the very top of the theater - AMAZING ACOUSTICS!

 This entry is somewhat short, but I promise you that the next one will be much more sufficient... because it will be all about PARIS! I leave for Paris in 3 days - riots and all.. we.are.going! :) I'll be safe Mom- promise!

Au Revoir - until next time.

-Taylar