Departure from Athens

Dear Parents,

Just to let you know that we are now waiting at the departure gate at the airport in Athens, and will be leaving in about half an hour.  As far as we know, we are on time.

Looking forward to handing over in Dammam this evening!

With regards,

The Greece Crew!

Quaking in our sleep...

At eleven o’clock last night, a strange phenomenon occurred in Tolon.  There was a low rumbling sound, and the ground shook.  Ms. Govender had been looking a bit tired, and we wondered whether she had finally fallen asleep and started snoring.  Turns out we did her a disservice – last night, our region of Greece was hit by an earthquake that reached 5.2 on the Richter scale.  Quite obvious it wasn’t Ms. Govender then – her snoring would have been much louder than that!

We breakfasted this morning to the sound of waves gently lapping at the water’s edge just below us.  It was slightly cloudy this morning and so those with sea view rooms didn’t get the spectacular sunrise they were looking forward to, although the views were still pretty special.  We checked out of our hotel – which had been a big hit with everyone – and were soon on our bus heading for the theatre at Epidaurus.  Epidaurus is probably the best preserved Greek theatre, and is still actively used for performances throughout the summer months.  It is famous for its acoustics – a coin dropping in the orchestra can be heard at the top of the auditorium without any need for special amplification.  We likened the acoustics to school assemblies: Mr. Greetham needs a microphone to be heard by everyone in the school hall, but the ancient Greeks at Epidaurus were clever enough to design the theatre so that every member of the 12,000 strong audience could hear the actors’ words.  This year, unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to perform anything in the orchestra, although Hala, Haya and Nadine H did see a girl from another group perform a beautiful song to the assembled crowds.  How did they manage that, and no one else?  As soon as we arrived at the theatre, these three were desperate for the toilet - they waited until we walked all the way up to the theatre, and consequently had to walk all the way down again before getting a chance to explore it.  Hence, they missed Anna’s tour.  They got their own little tour back up to the theatre, Mr. Suter kindly agreeing to escort them back up so that they didn’t completely miss the experience.  We did have an acoustic check from Ridaa, however - her loud screech as a minuscule spider fell off a tree and crawled down her leg while listening to Anna certainly echoed around the theatre.

Heading back to Naphlio, we completed the journey some of us had started yesterday when we climbed the stairs to the Palimedes fortress, only this time it was a lot easier as we drove up.  The only difficulty was squeezing the bus through the narrow streets of Naphlio, as the local Saturday market was in full swing.  We made it to the top, and proceeded to explore the summit, some 365m above the town.  Most exciting for our children was the prison cell where a defeated Greek general, Theodoros Kolokotronis, was kept locked up by the Turks who ruled Greece at the time.  It is barely 1m by 2m and has no light at all – he gradually went blind.  We weren’t going to allow the children to stay in it long enough for that to happen, but it was quite an exciting scrimmage as all 27 of our children tried to fit into it at once!  There are some spectacular views to be had at the fortress, but there are also some very high unprotected walls which four anxious teachers and our guide kept the children very far away from – we were all safely accounted for on the bus again!

Next port of call was Mycenae, and we stopped first at the Tomb of Agamemnon or Treasury of Atreus, whichever you prefer to call it.  The structure itself was found when a shepherd lost a lamb down a hole – which turned out to be the tomb.  The tomb itself had actually been plundered at some stage in history – given that it was probably sealed up some time around 1500BC there was plenty of time for that to happen – so there were no real clues as to what it was used for.  The children thought that it was called a beehive tomb as there were so many bees inside, but they were simply enjoying the cool air.  It was actually named for its shape which, funnily enough, is like a beehive.  From there we made our way to the citadel of Mycenae itself, reputedly the home of Agamemnon, who accompanied his brother Menalaus to Troy to try to retrieve Menalaus’ wife Helen.  He wasn’t particularly lucky, Agamemnon, because after ten years away fighting, he was murdered on his return home by the man his wife had taken up with, Aegisthus.  Mycenae was excavated by Heinrich Shliemann who, upon discovering the gold face mask that is now in the National Archaeological Museum, telegrammed a Greek newspaper to say, "I have gazed on the face of Agamemnon."  Chances are it isn’t actually Agamemnon, but it’s a good story.

With so much packed into this morning, lunch was well anticipated: cheese pastries, salad, stuffed tomatoes, veal, rice and fries, and ice cream and sour cherry sauce for dessert.  After gorging ourselves, we went to see a pottery making and painting demonstration which was really a very clever marketing exercise to generate interest in the pottery that the shop also sold.  Parents, can we advise you have plenty of super glue ready to hand when the children arrive home – despite several notes to carefully wrap their clay goodies and to carry them in hand luggage if they are fragile, we are sure there will be some calamities en route.  Huge excitement was generated by the shop proprietor, who gave each child a raffle ticket and then proceeded to award three prizes.  Reyad, Halal and Jamal were the lucky recipients.  Karl has to be commended on his shopping skills this week - a steadfast refusal to do any!  Saroufim family, we hope you are not expecting presents.  

And so back to Athens, and more food, and the end of a busy time spent here in Athens.  Karishma said she felt like she had been here for a month - to which the teachers concur! – but there is lots of excitement this evening as the children prepare for the journey home.  We’ve had a fantastic week here, and as you’ll have seen from the blog we have packed an awful lot of activity into our short time here.   In our time here, we have not received a single negative comment about the children – they have been an absolute credit to themselves, their parents and the school.  All the feedback we have received has been positive, with most of the people who did stop us to find out who we are and where we are from amazed at the ages of the children and somewhat taken aback that children so young have been allowed to travel so far from home – not something Greek children, or parents, would do.

So lights are going out now, we have a lie in tomorrow before we begin our trek home.  The children are excited about seeing you all tomorrow evening – we’d imagine you are just, if not more, as excited!  Until tomorrow, yassos!

A crashing good day

Upon being woken this morning, Lea complained, “Is it morning already?  I only just closed my eyes!”  She hadn’t, in fact – she and all the children had a good nine and a half hours sleep last night.  Which is slightly more than some of the staff.  We are sharing our hotel with groups of Italians who, we have decided, must be deaf as they seem to be only able to communicate with each other by shouting at top volume from close range, with little regard for anyone else in the vicinity.  So we have decided we are not fond of noisy Italians - although we do like our own Italian Frederica, who is not noisy at all (well, not too much). 

Checking out of the hotel this morning was, surprisingly, a relatively painless affair.  The children managed to organise themselves effectively, nothing seemed to be left behind, and we were actually downstairs waiting for our bus a full fifteen minutes before it was due!  First on the agenda today was the National Archaeological Museum, where the children used their workbooks to pinpoint key items within the collections and bombarded Anna with questions to find out who or what the items were.  After setting the alarm off yesterday, the children were warned about touching the artefacts and exhibit cases – there are fierce museum officials pacing the exhibit rooms ready to scold anyone transgressing the rules.  Imagine our surprise, therefore, when it was Ms. Kinghorn who was first to incur the wrath of the furies: unable to contain herself over the curvature of one particular statue’s muscular calves, she was caught caressing said muscles.  Tut tut!  Actually, Elian gave a great summary of the museum: “ This is the most marvellous museum I have ever seen.” 

From Athens we headed out towards the Peloponnese, Corinth to be exact.  The Corinth canal pretty much marks the point where the Peloponnese begins, and we stopped there for photo opportunities 80 metres above the canal.  Ms. Govender and Ms. Kinghorn were interested in the fact that there is a bungee jumping company that operates from the bridge, but sadly they weren’t open today so the ladies couldn’t jump.  

Before lunch, we stopped in ancient Corinth for a whistle stop tour of what was essentially a Roman colony in Greece.  There were some interesting stories to be heard about the site, but of course what was of more interest – and disgust – to the children were the public toilets.  Essentially, a room with a series of stones around the edges, with holes in them, where you sat chatting to your neighbours.  The idea of sitting with others while going about your business seemed particularly abhorrent to our group.  They did have an interesting museum room here - a hospital exhibit, where people who were sick made a dedication to the god Asclepius.  Hence, we had a room full of clay arms, legs, hands and a few other body parts that would make you wonder quite how you would survive that ailment. 

It wouldn’t be a proper blog entry if we didn’t mention our lunch.  Staff consensus is that it was meal of the week so far: fresh bread, baked courgettes and tomato fritters for starters, fish and rice, baked vegetables and then honey cake with ice cream.  In previous years we have dined next to the sinking bridge in Corinth – it sinks to the bottom of the canal to allow boats to pass, but then rises again and is usually covered with fish.  However, this year we had our meal at a seaside resort of Loutraki.  Within five minutes of sitting down, our first batch of food was out, and it just kept coming.  As staff, we constantly jump up and down keeping the children from being overly noisy, but as we were eating two coaches pulled up and disgorged about 100 Greek students younger even than our own.  Noise levels rose several decibels and so we gave up and gave the children their reins.

There was great excitement on the way to Naphlio as we had an accident!  Don’t panic parents, before you start complaining about why the emergency tree wasn’t activated, you received calls, etc., it was a small disagreement between our coach and another at a very narrow bend in the road - our coach had right of way, but a coach coming the other way decided not to stop.  Consequently, there was a small bump - the most extreme effect on our coach was that Mr. Suter was woken from his post lunch sleep!  The other coach suffered a broken window, but we were soon merrily on our way.

In Naphlio, there was a split in the camp – half wanted to go shopping, and half wanted to go climbing with Mr. Piddock and Mr. Suter up the 812 steps to the top of the Venetian fortress.  Sadly, once we split and headed off in our different directions, several members of the climbing group decided they needed the toilet, and so our time going up was severely restricted .  We had to go because Aymaan has been nagging all week that her sister went up to the top with Mr. Whitaker in 2012 and she wanted to match her sister’s efforts.  Unfortunately, we only made 382 steps (although given the random nature of the counting, it could have been anything between 350 and 450!).  Put in perspective, however, those that remained shopping only managed one shop.

And then to Tolon, where we checked in and immediately left en masse for the beach.  As we were going, a student from a Belgium group checking in behind us asked where the swimming pool was.  Perhaps he hadn’t noticed the sea lapping at the base of the hotel, just below the lobby windows.  This was pointed out to him.  “Yes, but where is the swimming pool,” he persisted.  Well, our children found it (large and salty) , and we had a great time splashing around in the cold water.  A massive game of rugby/football/American football developed, with very loose teams of boys vs. girls and Talal against everyone – every time Talal got the ball he ran away from everyone and then proceeded to do a very unusual victory dance.

Dinner – most people went up for seconds (we won’t tease you with what we ate, but once again it was three course and delicious) – and then rather than strolling up through the town, the majority of children decided they wanted to go shopping in a little souvenir shop across the road.  The shop had been due to close for the night, but once we mentioned that we might be bringing 20+ students across to them they extended their hours!

And so to bed.  Tomorrow, we’ll be visiting the theatre at Epidauros, the Venetian fortress (driving up, not climbing) and then going on to Mycenae to see where Agamemnon reigned at the time of the Trojan War.  We might even take in a little bit of pottery making before heading back to Athens.  All in all, another quiet day in Greece.

An alarming day

Success.  Tired bodies meant lots of sleep all round, and something of a lie in this morning - only a 7.30am start.  As we breakfasted in the roof top restaurant here in the hotel, the patio doors were swung open, the cool breeze gently fluttered across rooftop terrace, and if we craned our necks we could just see the Parthenon in the morning sunlight.  As the teachers said, it doesn't get much better than this.

Meeting up with our Greek tour guide this morning, Anna (not to be confused with Anne, who met us at the airport), we boarded our coach for a quick tour of the city, taking in all the major attractions.  Quite how many of the 3657 photographs that were taken out of the bus windows will a) come out properly and b) be remembered remains to be seen.  We had a brief stop at the Panathenaic Stadium, commissioned for the first modern Olympics in 1896 (more of this later), before moving on to the new Acropolis Museum. 

The top floor of the museum is designed to be the exact size of the Parthenon up on the Acropolis, and displayed around its walls are the frescoes from the temple.  Well, some of them.  If you've been to London, you may have been to the British Museum and seen the Elgin Marbles, the collection of the better preserved pieces from the Parthenon.  The official line from the British Museum is that Lord Elgin ‘acquired’ them in Athens between 1801 and 1805, and then later sold them to the British Government, who donated them to the museum.  Under the auspices of its Turkish rulers at the time, Lord Elgin was told he could remove anything from the Parthenon that did not interfere with the ancient citadel's walls.  So he was a bit of a naughty boy really, as he had the frescoes removed without the walls falling down.  Some would argue that given subsequent damage to those that remained, mainly due to Greek air pollution, he did save them.  Saviour or thief?  Make your own mind up. 

We mentioned the Panathenaic Stadium earlier.  At that very first Olympic Games in 1896, the marathon race was won by a Greek called Spyros Louis.  His prize?  Not a gold medal (medals weren’t introduced until 1904) but a silver chalice called Breal’s Cup.  It is solid silver, and is proudly displayed in the Acropolis Museum.  Quite valuable, as you can imagine.  Consequently, housed in a high security case.  The alarm, as we discovered, is very loud.  If you set it off, which we did, security guards come running from all directions, as we noticed.  Oops!  We won’t mention the culprit, will we Jamal?

From the museum, we climbed up to the Acropolis itself.  It’s a beautiful sunny day in Athens, and it was a pleasant stroll along the highly polished marble pathways up to the top.  Nadine E delayed us slightly with a nose bleed, but she was more concerned about the spot of blood that spilled on her shirt than the actual bleed itself.  The big challenge for our students was to count the number of columns around the outside of the Parthenon.  Greeks had a simple formula when it came to temples and columns: the number of columns along the front was doubled along the side, plus one.  However, a bit of logic has to be applied to this question.  17 at each side, 8 at each end.  Parents, we’ll be looking for your answers in the replies section of the blog.

We descended into the Plaka for lunch, which was a selection from cheese and spinach pastries, Greek salad, stuffed eggplant, oven roast chicken and potatoes, and calvos (spelled incorrectly but essentially honey cakes) for dessert.  As we ended the meal, the children became more animated as… shopping time approached.  If you know the Plaka, the selection of shops and souvenirs available is huge.  We had an hour, we thought we manage a long stroll along the narrow meandering streets and… we managed one shop!  Like an Amazonian feeding frenzy as piranhas devour an animal that has strayed into river, so our children ransacked the shop, loading baskets, filling carrier bags, unloading wallets.  The checkout lady twice ran out for change.  It was carnage!  And never have you seen happier children!

If our four course lunch wasn't enough to sustain us today, we came back to the hotel for dinner.  Bursting at the seams, we had some quiet time, and then lights out at 9.30pm – not too bad after a long hot day.  Tomorrow, we’re off to the Archaeological Museum in the morning (Mr. Suter is already salivating) before heading off to the Peloponnese and Tolon.  We can’t wait!