Wanderlust: April 2012

   The day after Mumsy returned to the states, I embarked on my next adventure, Greece! One of my housemates, who has become a very good friend of mine, is from Athens and he invited me to stay with him and his family for a week during Easter break. Of course I accepted this offer! This trip was going to be my first international voyage on my own, surprisingly, there were no hiccups! All went very smoothly. Xenophon picked me up from the Athens airport, and we arrived to his parent's home early evening. After meeting the family and their very sweet housekeeper, Xenophon, myself, and his friends headed out for our first night on the town! I was exhausted from my early flight, so we had an early return of 2am. The following morning, we were to catch the 7am ferry ride from Athens to the Greek Island, Paros. It was here that we spent the majority of my stay.
   The only way to access Paros is via boat or very small plane, it was about a 3 hour high speed boat ride. The island is gorgeous! Paros is one of the less touristy islands, so it was brimming with natural beauty. The warm weather was a very nice change of pace from freezing London. It was cloudy and rainy for part of my stay, but was warm for the majority of my visit. I was even able to lay out on the gorgeous patio and get a bit of a tan!
   The house that I stayed in was incredible. It is owned by Xenophon's parents, but the entire family stayed there for the week to celebrate the Greek Orthodox Easter. This family isn't like mine, they do not fit in one car or at one dinner table. There were 20 people staying in this house, not even an exaggeration. The house was a modern version of classic Greek island style. I was thrilled that I got to see the iconic little white houses with blue doors scattered through the hillside of the island. Just like on Mama Mia, which I found out wasn't even filmed in Greece.... It was such a relaxed lifestyle, very different than that of London, that is just the island way of life.
   In Greece, Easter is the largest holiday of the year. It is a weeklong event that is celebrated in unity with the entire family. One fun tradition that I learned is egg fighting. This is done by hard boiling a large batch of eggs. Each of the children in the family is given an egg. Then they have "egg fights" where one person tries to hit the other's egg, cracking their opponent's egg while keeping theirs in tact. The owner of the last egg without any cracks is the winner! To anyone wanting to try this at home, just remember to boil the eggs first, or it could get quite messy! Two nights prior to Easter Sunday, all of the villagers attend the services provided by the local church. The epitaph(coffin with Jesus in it) is carried from the entrance of the church, and is paraded through the island, to be safely returned to the church for the resurrection. All of the locals follow the epitaph processional and sing hymns. Along the route of the processional, are people acting out scenes from the Bible. It is similar to the Greek's version of "Walk Through Bethlehem." The following evening slightly before midnight, everyone returns to the church for the resurrection. The holy light is passed via candles from inside the church to all of the people gathered to pray. At midnight, everyone hugs each other and shouts "Hristós anésti," meaning "He has risen!" The response is "Alithós anésti," meaning "Truly, he has risen." Many of the locals are very religious and this is an extremely important night to them. On Easter Sunday, the celebrations really begin. We went to the neighbor's house, along with the entire family, for lunch/dinner. One of the main dishes is the roast lamb, which I actually helped prepare! This is not just a slab of meat that is cooked in the oven, the entire lamb is put on a spit, and roasted over a fire all day until it is perfectly cooked. I was able to rotate the spit and assist with the lamb cooking process, it was so tasty!
   It seems as if every time I turned around, more food was being shoved in my direction. YaYa(Xenophon's Grandma) insisted that I was too skinny(bless her heart) and that I needed to eat more. And eat I did! I tried all sorts of exotic things! My favorite was souvlaki with tzatziki sauce!
   Once we returned to Athens, I took a tour of the Acropolis! It is amazing what that building has endured and still stands to tell the story today! It was quite the educational experience to learn about the Greek gods and goddesses, and their ancient stories. Filakiaa for now! (kisses)

Paros, Greece

Easter Lamb

Xenophon and I

The girls <3

YaYa and Pa Poose

View from the Acropolis

Still standing today

Electric buses, very sustainable!

House of Parliament

Calamari!

The carrying of the epitaph

Donuts with Nutella and ice-cream...I die!

   "Hail Britania, Britania knows the waves....da da bum bum bum bum" we're the words Mumsy and I sang as our train pulled up to the London Waterloo station. Although we enjoyed our time in Guildford, it was time to move on to the big city. We stayed in a London Hilton, the usual drill.
   It was such a funny experience with Mum along. I had become used to bending hotel rules a little bit and cramming four people like sardines in a room meant for two, or purloining the breakfast for lunch and snacks, however, Mum was not one to break the rules. In order for us to get the employee discount at the hotel, my friend Ally booked the room under her name and added me as her travel companion. But Ally wasn't with me to check in, she was on a trip traveling across Europe, and Mom was my companion. While I was checking in, Mom insisted on staying outside in the freezing cold to avoid raising any suspicion to our sneaky plan. Since I had just cut my fringe, Mom thought I slightly resembled a Russian spy and jokingly called me Natasha. Since she was my partner in crime, her Russian spy alias was Borris. Whenever we would do anything that was the slightest bit dodgy, we would use our code names. Check in was successful, clearly I am sneakier than we all thought.
   The hotel was a beautiful, modern building, and the food was amazing! We had so many plans penciled into our agendas, we even decided to stay for an extra night. It was necessary to do all of the touristy things, so of course we visited Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Picadilly Circus, the Tower of London, London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, and the London Zoo. The tour of the Tower of London was very educational, and we even got to see a replica of the King's chambers from the olden days. We also visited the torture chamber in the tower, certainly not a place anyone would like to end up in. Unfortunately, no royals were spotted at the palace. According to the tabloids, they were at Kensington. No one mistook me for Kate Middleton, even with my new English 'do....maybe I need to start wearing more Burberry? Then we would be twins for sure!
   Since we both have a love for the theatre and fancy a good musical, we visited the West End. This area is London's equivalent to Broadway. It was here that we saw three shows, three nights in a row. Amongst our repertoire of shows were "We Will Rock You," "Chicago," and Michael Jackson's "Thriller." We Will Rock You was an amazing show, and the audience interaction was epic. The cast had the entire audience on their feet, clapping and singing to Queen's greatest hits. The following night, our musical escapades were slightly less well planned. We purchased our tickets from a kiosk one hour before the show. We hadn't eaten dinner yet since we were out all day exploring, so we went to a nearby Italian restaurant and scarfed down a pizza and glass of wine and we were ready for the show! We arrived to the theatre just in time, Chicago was about to begin. The cast was so talented, and really did justice to the storyline. However, the biggest entertainment we received was from the couple sitting directly in front of us. They decided to kiss for 90% of the show's duration, it was disgusting. Some people just do not have anything theater etiquette these days. The song "Class" in Chicago stated it perfectly: "Whatever happened to fair dealing? And pure ethics? And nice manners? Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass? Whatever happened to class?"
   The final show that we saw was "Thriller." Earlier that day, we toured the city sights. We didn't really have a game plan of what the evening's events would include. One must-do was to get a Creme Egg McFlurry from McDonald's. My two loves, Cadbury's and Mackers! It was the best 70 pence I've ever spent. While in McDonald's, Mom and I leafed through our "Things to do in London" pamphlet and agreed that we wanted to see the musical, Ghost. Oops, we read that the show was starting in a hour. We didn't have tickets, didn't know where the nearest underground was, and had no access to googlemaps due to no internet connection. No worries, never fear. Armed with a cheeseburger to go and a small map, we set off in a gallop, determined to make it to the show. We pushed through the crowds in the full streets, ran through the tunnels of the underground, and shoved our way onto the tube, overflowing with passengers. We actually made it to Picadilly Circus 10 minutes before the show was starting! The only issue was that we had no idea how to find the theatre where the show was playing. Feeling slightly defeated, we wandered through the streets thinking all hope was lost and that we would miss the show. It was then that we stumbled upon the theatre playing Thriller. There was a queue outside! People were still purchasing tickets 4 minutes before the show's start time. We were able to get limited viewing tickets for wayyyy less than the "good seats." We even had time to snag a glass of wine and slide into our seats as the curtain was being raised. Adventuring at it's finest!
   The great thing about the underground is that it's open all the time...oh, wait, no it's not...the exact words I uttered as we approached the underground entrance and found the gates closed late after the show. Luckily, we continued to walk for a bit and found another tube station that was running. By the end, we became pros at the tube, such a well-constructed system! We are pretty much city slickers :)
   While at the London Zoo, we saw a wide variety of exotic animals. We were slightly freezing...who knew zoos were outdoors?! But it was a great experience and a day well spent! We were lucky enough to get a 2 for 1 offer on our tickets to the zoo. Funny story about that...there is an special by the national rail that offers two admissions for the price of one at certain venues if you fill out a form and prove that you travelled to London by rail. Such a great idea! Unless you lose your rail card, and forget the pamphlet with the necessary forms in the hotel. We went through the trouble of taking the underground out of our way to find a rail station, to pick up a new pamphlet and buy another train ticket. It was still a good deal because we saved lots of money!
   At the Tower of London, we watched a reenactment of the traditional English dancing and viewed the crown jewels. I have never seen gems so massive! They were such a size that they almost looked fake, land resembled tacky costume jewelry. But hey, if they are good enough for Queen Elizabeth, they are good enough for me! It was a sad day when Mom left and I escorted her back to the airport, but I will be excited to see her soon for the wedding! :)