First, I want to shout out to all the Jews because we are awesome. It doesn't matter where you go you can find Jews and automatically be welcomed and feel like you're part of a community. Friday night I made hamantashan (for Purim!) with the other Jewish girl in the study abroad program. They were delicious, surprising since we didn't have any measuring cups or a rolling pin (we used a vodka bottle haha- not mine just so you know parents, etc.). Then we tried to go to services at the local synagogue, but they were already over when we went around 8 pm. The guard guy told us to go upstairs to the community room. It was pretty cool they have a pretty big space there. There was one room where the younger people were so we checked that out and met some nice people that said that they were having kavalat shabbat (dinner) around 9:30 or 10. Totally the Greek way to do services first and then do dinner way later. So we walked around downtown for a while and then came back for dinner. They had so much food which was awesome! The rabbi is really young and the prayers and stuff were the same except for slightly different tunes. So cool. They did the long version of the kiddish and we sang another familiar song that I don't remember the name of. Their challah was the best. Anyway, it was really cool to talk to them because a lot of people (especially Greeks) associate being Greek with being Greek Orthodox so the Jews here do feel some racism. There actually used to be a huge Jewish population in Greece (in Thessaloniki in particular) but around 90% of them died or didn't return after the holocaust :(. So I'll probably go back because I think it would be really cool to see their service and it's nice to hang out with Greek people my age.
Saturday morning we left on a school-organized trip to Ioannina (say it like ya-ne-na) and Meteora. They are North of us so it was a bit chilly and there was some snow on the ground on our drive there through the mountains. Some parts of the drive were on crazy, curvy mountain roads. It was way worse than that drive to that museum in France for those of you who know what I'm talking about. ugh. Anyway, the drive was nice though because the scenery everywhere in Greece is pretty much amazing. This area is just a ton of mountains. The highway part of the drive was pretty much a series of tunnels right through the middle of mountains. Little random fact, the Greeks have a creation story where God created Greece by dropping rocks into the sea. Totally fits. Greece's coastline is about the same as the US's, but Greece's land size is only the size of Ohio or Alabama. Yelly, you would like it because it's pretty much the polar opposite of Florida flatness. I can't even imagine a place with more hills, mountains, and cliffs.
So we arrived in Ioannina and saw the cave there. It was so cool for two main reasons. First, it's really old, like thousands and thousands of years old, and they know there was human activity there during the Paleolithic period. Second, it is amazingly huge. From the outside it just looks like a hill and you can't even tell what's there but then you go inside and it just goes on and on. Also, this cave has some of the biggest openings so it's like there are these giant rooms in it.
Later that night in Ioannina I had baklava in Greece for the first time!! Sooooo good. Way better than American baklava for some reason... maybe because it's like drenched in honey. I heard that it's apparently like the worst dessert ever for you calorie wise though. True or False??? I'm not sure I believe that because honey is natural so it doesn't really count...
The next day we drove to Meteora to see a couple monasteries. Meteora means "floating rock" in Greek (-> meteor), and you can tell why they call it that because there are all of these random cliff island things that are pretty amazing. They were formed because this area used to be covered by water. The pictures don't really compare to the real thing, but for those of you who have seen avatar they're kind of like the floating mountains in the movie. Except, for some reason they decided to build monasteries on top of them.
We couldn't pictures inside a lot of the areas there, but I can't imagine living there all the time. Both of the churches had these frescoes that showed all the ways the martyrs were tortured/died. Lovely.
The three hour ride home went by pretty fast though because we got to watch Valentine's Day! Someone bought it from one of the street guys (it's kind of like NYC, they sell purses and stuff too). It was actually really good quality. And that's about it!
Pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/kaitz.j/IoanninaAndMeteora#
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