School's Out--Time To Play!

After classes wrapped up in Venice, two of my classmates and I decided to continue traveling for about 10 days before returning to the states.  We hopped on a ferry and took ourselves to Greece!  At that time the country was preparing to host the 2002 Olympics in Athens, and construction was everywhere.  As lovely as Athens might have otherwise been, the crazy concrete city wasn't what we had in mind for relaxation.  Our professor is Greek, and invited us to stay at his house for a few days on the island of Aegina.  The island was small and charming.  The beaches were amazing, but not in a commercialized, glamorous way.  Things I remember about Aegina...
~The stone orthodox church
~Sketching ancient temple ruins high on a hill.  We took a bus up, and when we were ready to leave we sat under pine trees to keep cool.
~Sneaking away one morning to have a honey banana crepe and enjoying the time to myself.
~A group of friendly fishermen who were celebrating and invited us sit with them for a salad at dinner.
~The old man in his store that sold me an orange soda.  He spoke no English, and with my Greek, well, we used a lot of sign language!
~The speedos my professor wore when we all went to the beach together--they were Red Cross red, as was my face after I saw him in them!
~Fresh octopus hung on a line at the oceanside restaurants.
~Souvlaki!

Studying abroad was a wonderful, life changing experience for me as a young architect.  I would love to repeat the trip and record my thoughts and the sights.  I hope you've enjoyed looking at this trip through my 20 year old eyes!