hullo copenhagen!: greece: the blue and white of it

as i type this, ive got a feeling that shuz, mel, sheena and ange have just arrived wearily back at athens after their 9hr boat ride from santorini. if you guys are reading this, hej hej! :)

so last friday saw sam, shuz and myself heading off to the ancient land of the gods to meet the other 3 uk girls, despite the impending exams for sam and myself. (exams? what exams?). but in retrospect, i would have been really daft if i didnt go. thank you to shuwen's powers of persuasion and pretty economical SAS return tickets to athens! i know im going to die and start complaining and whinge about how i havent done enough work and die lah i cannot remember all my wto cases and EC sued which country over which trade barrier in the next 2 very very stressful weeks, i'm definitely not regretting having seen greece on this exchange. especially when i dont think i need to 'save greece for my honeymoon' because i havent even found a husband for which a honeymoon is necessary. hurhur.

i mean, its greece ok! GREECE! the land of gods, demigods, trojan horses, medusa, hydras, sirens, muses, zeus, poseidon, hades, athena, aphrodite, the agean, the parthenon, the delphi, crete, corinth, thessalonia etc etc etc. i was such a greek mythology nerd in my pri/sec sch days (ok, still am), so actually being in the land where all the action took place was extremely exciting. its one of those places where you dream of going to all your life and and when you're actually there you really dont believe that you are there.

but i guess i played up the mystique 0f athens too much because when i got there, i was pretty disappointed at the city. its extremely dense, hot, stuffy, (comparison with singapore stops here) traffic is exceptionally hazardous, roads arent exactly well paved and the hostels are downright not good (i stayed 2 nights at 2 different places and both fell Below Expectation). and the ruins where not as mind-blowing and awesome that i would drop to my knees and feel insignificant at the power of ancient construction. the acropolis was crawling with tourists (japanese on the left, koreans behind you, the french at your right) and school children, there was no way you could take a picture of just yourself hugging the pillars of the parthenon.

on the other hand, i think i could get used to a life sitting onboard a yacht and sailing my life away on the agean, from pretty greek island to pretty greek island.

it is that beautiful.

now i know why the greek flag is painted only blue and white. blue for the azure sky and sea, and white for the gleaming greek houses that dot the top of the cliffs and their little blue domed roofs. actually, i think those blue domes are only reserved for old byzantine churches. ive been so many postcards with the exact same picture of these little houses perched precariously on the cliffs, it was hard to believe i was actually walking through through and around them. but they're no joke to get to. its up on a cliff remember? not only did we have to walk up a million stairs to get to the top, we had to navigate around donkey poo left by very hardworking donkeys who traverse up and down the staircase everyday carrying tourists who have money to pay them to. while we poor exchange students have to stick to the walking and avoid those donkey traps. and also convince ourselves that we're exercising and losing the lunch that we just ate.

it was a really short 4D3N trip, a pity, for a place as huge as greece. but im definitely fortunate enough to be able to have gone for it in the first place. wish my family could see this! SIA flies direct to athens anyway :) and of course, the company i had makes everything four times the better.

now let the pictures do the talking. dont say i make you jealous!

shuz and sheena do the spring-summer collection

spectacular

the characteristic blue and white of a typical byzantine church

the sunset landscape of oia (one of the islands in the santorini chain). stunning. its supposedly the (insert random superlative) sunset in the world (according to ange's blog).