It has been a while since I returned from Greece in August 2001, and I'm thankful that I maintained at least a sketchy log of the daily happenings spanning about three weeks. This account, re-created from my daily jottings, will hopefully help complete the stories captured on film in the album section.

The Day is finally here! We're leaving on a three-week sojourn to Greece (islands and all)! Well, it is not all fun and games, of course. I am one of two MIT teaching assistants (TA) for an exchange program titled URIT 2001: User Response to Information Technology and Innovation in Transportation. Having gone through the program a year earlier in Boston, I signed up for a chance to meet up with Greek friends from the previous year... in exotic settings!

As usual, preparing for the trip sat on its own special backburner, heating up only at the last minute. The past few days were spent putting together course material on CDs, analysing potential assignment problems and preparing the finicky and near-outmoded laptop for three weeks of intense operations. And of course, getting traveler's checks, tourist guides, maps, and the like. The only long-range planning involved the procurement of a Greek visitor visa (which required a new American visa, for which I had to go to Montreal... which required a Canadian visa, for which I had to go to New York City. Well, thankfully, the recursive chain was broken here, and plans of obtaining a Turkish visa were abandoned). Phew! Last-minute packing ensured that I carried a mess of a suitcase and a bulging carry-on, stuffed with laptop, camera, tripod, clothes, course materials, and... food! Scary thoughts about an almost certain shortage of vegetarian food pushed me to load up on noodles, pickles, and a little puliyogere powder (the last item is mixed with boiled rice to create "instant" tamarind rice).

A cab ride to Logan airport brought me to a jammed terminal building, with people across multiple flights clamouring around the gates. Our flight to JFK airport, New York, vanished a few times from the screens before we were allowed to board the delayed flight. Will we make the tight Athens connection at JFK?! The frightening turboprop plane took off and landed, accompanied by horrendous noise from the propeller engines. And we made the connection with half an hour to spare! Nothing to do now but to sit back and relax during the long direct flight to Athens...

The airline food was decent (which is always a surprise!), and I dozed on and off, getting up a few times to stretch the cramped muscles. The shift in time zones will doubtless cause confusion at the other end of the flight!

We arrived at about 10:00 AM (local time) at the newly-constructed Athens Internationl Airport (AIA), and were relieved to note that our checked baggage had made it all the way. We regrouped, and then proceeded to exchange traveler's checks for cash. Small groups then headed for the Cretian House (our residence in Athens) in taxis, on a warm and sunny day.

There was a little gesturing, while we tried to tell the taxi driver where we wanted to go. Though he seemed to speak only Greek, the driver was helpful in locating the required street on his road map, and off we went. We saw a few aircraft cross above our heads on a bridge (later, we were told that the new airport was constructed on either side of the highway). The traffic system seemed to resemble its American counterpart, but the drivers and driving resembled India a lot. Free use of horns, and a little less lane discipline than in the US. After a long ride, the driver deposited us at the Cretian House, where we were met by Isabella from the University of the Aegean.

I moved into a nice furnished room with an attached balcony. The room even had a cooking range and fridge! The view from the balcony was very much like what we would see from an Indian apartment complex: Rows of balconies with rope for hanging clothes, and assorted boxes and furniture piled up for future use. We quickly showered, and boarded a bus for the Acropolis. The Acropolis houses the Parthenon, the temple to goddess Athena. A prominent feature in any textbook of world history, I also knew this as the venue where Yanni performed live with his new age music ensemble.

Having purchased our tickets (my first expenditure in Greek Drachmas!), we proceeded to climb up to the temple, and were soon met by our tour guide, Ms Fotini. She quickly went through the history of the place, and it was really awe-inspiring to re-live the stories and facts that we plodded through in our high school history lessons. Some snatches of facts surfaced from my distant memory, but most of the stuff was too deep in storage for quick retrieval (I was never too good at history!).

The word acropolis signifies a citadel or fortress, and the mountain served exactly this purpose. The people of ancient Greece raced up to the Acropolis when they were being invaded by enemy troops. The location had been chosen carefully, through two main criteria. Firstly, the hill offered a high vantage point from which to watch the enemy movements and attack. Secondly, there was a spring providing a convenient source of water for the people holed up inside. We walked around the Parthenon and the temple to Poseidon, listening to the commentary on life in ancient Greece, its myths and culture. The entire city of Athens lay below us in all its splendor, white buildings sharply contrasted against green trees.

We also visited the museum nearby, that contained relics and murals from the excavations in and around the temples. I could not believe that I was actually seeing the images portrayed in my textbooks! The statues and engravings were very detailed. It is amazing how they have been preserved as a record of the mores of ancient Greece. We soon left the museum and walked back around the Parthenon to the theatre. The sun was high in the sky now, and everyone thought it was a good idea to get something to drink. The strawberry frappe (crushed and flavoured ice) really hit the spot! We then boarded our bus for a quick tour of the other historical, political and cultural landmarks in Athens. This included the parliament and the Olympic stadium. We reached our rooms, tired out from the long day and the even longer flight that preceded it. I managed to catch a few hours of sleep before dinner.

Dinner at the Palaia Plakiotiki Taverna Stamatopoulos was a grand introduction to Greek cuisine. Live music and the stars above provided a very nice setting indeed! And what's more, they had enough vegetarian options for me to choose from! I stuffed myself with cheese pie and eggplant, and it was late when we finally rode our bus back to the House.

The next day, we grabbed a drink before leaving early for a series of educational tours around Athens. Our first stop was the headquarters of the Anangel Shipping Company, where we were served a breakfast of cookies, cake, croissants, juice and coffee. This was followed by an interesting talk on the history and current state of the Greek shipping industry. We then made our way to the port of Piraeus, and boarded a ferry boat operated by Minoan Ferries. The inside of the ship resembled a luxury liner, and we toured the living quarters, lounges and control room before leaving for the Piraeus Port Authority. A brief video presentation explained the strategic role played by the Port Authority, and also detailed some of the current and future expansion projects. We then proceeded to the Athens Metro's Acropolis station. After a briefing on the excavations and findings at the metro site, we rode the train to Syntagma, to see the operations center that coordinated the entire Metro. The walls of the station were covered with pictorials of the excavations at the site, and included amphorae, burial chambers, and other artifacts. Our next stop was at the Attiko Metro, the agency that did the transportation and land use planning studies for the metro. A brief talk walked us through the intricacies of the Greek metro planning process, detailing several special criteria considered and innovations adopted.

That being the last official activity for the day, we elected to cool off at the beach for a while before heading for the Taverna for dinner. Tried baked butter beans this time, with cheese pie, of course! We stayed on late into the night before trudging back to the House. These are hectic days indeed!

On the 8th of August, we packed our bags and loaded them into our bus. We will be leaving for the island of Chios today! Our first stop, though, was the office of the Mayor of Athens. The vice-Mayor greeted us, and showed us the original Olympic flag that had recently been retrieved from the person who stole it several years ago. One section of the office was lined with detailed terracotta miniatures of all the past mayors of Athens. We assembled in the meeting hall for a brief history of the local political setup, and left after thanking the Mayor's office for all the support they had extended to us during our stay.

We arrived at the Athens 2004 headquarters, housing the planning and operations divisions for the 2004 Olympics to be held in Athens. Their presentation outlined the challenges involved in planning such a large-scale event, and also detailed some of the problems faced during previous Olympic events. We were presented with a poster to be used for the forthcoming Games.

Our next stop was the Athens International Airport itself. An airport official briefed us over a scaled model of the airport facilities. We took a quick break for lunch at the new cafeteria, and for the first time, I realised that being a vegetarian could be a pain. I had to contend with baked potatoes, boiled corn and yogurt. Before boarding any flights, we visited the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower. The glass-enclosed circular room afforded a nice view of the airport grounds all around. We saw a few flights take off and land before getting back into the bus and heading for the terminal.

Some of us decided to exchange more U$D into Drachma, anticipating bad exchange rates in Chios. However, the teller took her own sweet time, and the flight had to be held on the tarmac for the laggard American delegation. A small Olympic Airways flight brought us into Chios airport after about 45 minutes. And for the second time, we were lucky to see our bags intact (this cynicism about baggage stems mainly from seeing so many friends arrive at American destinations, only to find that a few of their items have been shipped on other flights. More on this later, towards the end of the trip...).

We loaded our bags into a bus and headed straight for the dormitories of the University of the Aegean (UA). These dorms were our home for the next two weeks or so. As we drove along the coast, we saw amazingly clear beaches... and out on the horizon, the dim outline of Turkey.

We soon arrived at a beautiful cluster of buildings nestling between a fair amount of trees and plants, the mountains towering away behind them... and the beaches across the road! I cannot think of a more relaxing location for a university dormitory! We quickly obtained keys to our rooms, and marched off to deposit the heavy bags. Another well-furnished room with a desk, bed, fridge, bathroom and tonnes of storage space. And a balcony, of course.

People started meandering towards the beach almost immediately, but there was work for the TAs. Nick (one of the Greek students in the program) got a taxi to take me to the university, where we spent a while discussing logistical issues for the course, especially for the next day. Having sorted out some of the details, we headed to the UA restaurant for dinner. Everyone had cheese pie and salads. The Greek salad consists of peppers (capsicum), tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and feta cheese.

We left early the next day, catching a 7:45 bus to take us to the university. A quick breakfast, and the day began. Helped set up the day's lectures. We also received computer accounts, and a lot of us spent a while catching up on e-mail and the happenings in the world. I quickly filtered out a huge backlog of junk mail before tackling the genuine ones. After the day's lectures, we headed for Aipos village, a little way up in the hills. Everyone gladly jumped into the swimming pool, and we lazed around in the water for a while. First, of course, I jumped in without ascertaining the depth, and caught myself out of my depths. A little thrashing brought me to the surface, and I quickly shifted to the shallow end (that was still a foot or two above my head). Whatever little floating I could do before was overridden by a sudden fear of letting go of the side, and I hung in there trying to muster the courage to free the arms.

We finally got out of the pool for a heavy lunch, and celebrated Isabella's birthday with a cake. Some of us jumped back into the pool, and I soon realised that it is not easy to stay in the water on a full stomach. While a group left for Nea Moni (an old monastery), the rest of us spent time playing basketball and volleyball in the shadow of a couple of giant windmills. We punched a feather-light volleyball around for a while before the bus returned to take us to Nea Moni.

Nea Moni is considered to be the oldest monastery in Greece, with an intersting history. The Father related the origins of the sacred site, and explained the many murals and mosaics on the walls and roof. It was really dark when we finally left the monastery. Dinner at the UA restaurant consisted of spaghetti and tomato sauce, and a Greek salad. (The Greek salad was a part of almost every meal we had in Greece!). Upon returning to the dorms, I fell asleep reading Broca's Brain by Carl Sagan.

Friday saw us back at the UA restaurant for an early breakfast. Once the lectures began for the day, I had my plate full with problems back at MIT's lab. It took a while to fix them remotely by logging in to the MIT machines from Greece. Lunch consisted of great stuffed tomatoes (and Greek salad... I am going to stop mentioning the salad again!). We then dumped our stuff at the dorms and headed for Mavra Volia, a black lava beach. The pebbles here were formed through the erosion of volcanic rock. The place was fantastic! We arrived a few hours before sundown, and spent a while in the clear waters. Some people (even kids!) were climbing up the rocky outcrops and jumping into the sea. I remained content with loafing around in neck-deep water. We soon left the water and made tracks to the bus, grabbing an ice cream on the way.

The next stops were at Pirgi and Mesta, a couple of villages in Chios. Pirgi was characterised by decorated houses. The facades had intricate designs scratched in the outer layer of lime. We meandered through the narrow streets, obtaining a little mastic (chewing gum from the local mastic tree) on the way. We walked past the church into the village square. People sitting at tables with food and drink (this mastic is really strong!).

Mesta was characterised by narrow stone streets, and the houses were connected above through stone arches. These arches were used by the inhabitants to escape from pirate attacks during the 1850s. We came to the village square, and saw more people at tables and chairs. There was a nice church here as well.

Saturday, and our first free day in Greece! There was nothing planned for us, and we were free to do whatever we wanted! However, the lack of an official agenda meant that there would be no arranged buses as well. Some of us decided to get some shopping done. So a quick breakfast later, we withdrew some cash at an ATM (banks do not operate during the weekends, so cashing TCs was out) and walked around the streets. Jumped into a few stores at random to check out prices, and ended up buying a bunch of postcards and a pair of sandals for the beach. We walked along the waterfront, nursing a chocolate milk. The entire area was lined with eateries, each store having set out an array of tables and chairs by the water. People sat enjoying a drink or two, while looking out at the big ferry ships moored just a few feet away. Purchased a portable fan to keep the air circulation going during the still and humid nights. The weather was almost identical to Madras, and the fan was indeed a big help!

Took the bus back to the dorms and napped a while before plunging into the cool beach waters. Played a little volleyball in the water before showering and taking the last bus into Chios town for dinner. We decided to skip the cafeteria meal for a change, and selected a place on the waterfront for dinner. Greek music was blaring from a temporary stage set up close by. Stray dogs were chasing people and motorcycles up and down the street. Consumed a pretty good Okra gumbo (okra is the name given to lady's fingers in the US, and apparently in Greece as well) and walked along to a bar called Metropolis. As luck would have it, we managed to find seats right beneath a giant speaker blaring mostly English songs at such a high volume as to make speech almost impossible. People were shouting themselves hoarse just to be heard by the persons next to them. Thankfully, the group decided to leave soon. We bumped into newly arrived students at the entrance. A re-estimation of plans resulted in a much smaller group heading back to the dorms in a cab.

The effect of the previous night's foray left me drained (late nights always have this effect on me), and I slept through my alarm clock's fervent appeals to rise and shine at 6:00 AM. Pulling out of bed finally at 8:30, I showered and took a walk along the coast. Clicked a few pictures of the coves, mountains and the quaint red-roofed houses. When I headed back, I realised that the long night had not yet released its grip on me. I resorted to reading, music and computer games, but kept falling asleep repeatedly. The evening saw us back at the UA restaurant for dinner. It was Fabiana's (an Italian student in the program) birthday, and we managed to smuggle a cake in for a surprise. The cake was produced in the middle of dinner, and everyone had a good meal. Stuffed tomatoes and cake - an odd combination indeed!

Taking a taxi back to the dorms, a group headed for the beach. After several futile attmpts at getting green shrubbery to burn, we formed a circle and played word games for a while, the waves lapping at our feet. I soon retired to the dorms, leaving the others to drink into the night.

Well, nearly no play! The week from 13th to 19th of August was mainly spent in lectures and intense project-related activity. The weekend, of course, was another great outing.

The daily schedule for the week was almost unchanged throughout. A rushed start by getting up at 7:00 AM, grabbing a drink at the nearby store and catching the 7:45 bus to the UA restaurant for breakfast. Course lectures began at around 9:00. Hectic activity in getting the lectures ready, creating assignments and follow-up materials, and trouble-shooting Microsoft Windows configured in Greek! The students were split into project groups so that they could start working on the details at the earliest. Lunch at the UA restaurant, often followed by ice cream. Back to the UA for classes and helping students get started with their projects, conducting review classes for data analysis and modeling, and estimating unknown data for certain groups. Dinner at the UA restaurant, the 11:00 PM bus back to the dorms, followed by music until I dropped off. Very little variation in the overall scheme, except for ocasional trips to sweet stores to load up on mouth-watering delicacies.

But things were different on the 15th! This is independence day in Greece, and virtually everything normal comes to a grinding halt. Some students decided to dash over to Turkey for the day. I would have loved to go, too, but the lack of a Turkish visa forced me to make alternative plans. I decided to sleep a little late into the day, seeing that the UA restaurant will not be providing us with lunch anyway. I arrived at the university a little after noon, and got a lot of MIT work done. Popped out a couple of times to see deserted streets and downed store shutters. The sweet shop was open, though, and I sourced my lunch from here. The Turkey group and others arrived at the university in the evening, in time for the Panigiri fair at Pyrgi.

A bus took us all to the village square at Pirgi, where the tables and chairs had been arranged along the perimeter to create a sort of stage in the center. A band was just getting started with traditional Greek music. Seats had been reserved for us beforehand, and we sat down to witness the turn of events. Once again, the vegetarian angle came into play, and I ordered salad and juice. Hundreds of people milling around everywhere, and the seats soon filled up. Soon, the kids started dancing around the band. We were told that the grown-ups would dance later. Much later! It got really late into the night, and some of us decided to call it quits. When only kids were still prancing about at 1:00 AM, we took the bus back to the dorms. We learnt that the others stayed at the fair until about 3:00 AM!

The second deviation from the packed work week occurred during the weekend. Saturday morning saw us back in the bus, driving to Kardamyla and the village of Nagos. Kardamyla is a traditional shipping village, and has seen the rise of several big shipping families. Several of them still operate their lines to this day. The beach at Nagos was fantastic, and proved to me that those postcards weren't lying! The blue-green waters and white sands had earned this beach the Blue Flag award (awarded to some of the best beaches in Europe) three times in a row! I lazed around on the sand, repeatedly getting drenched by the cold waves. We lunched at a nearby restaurant, and I managed to locate cheeseballs, fried spinach and watermelon. Everyone unwillingly dragged themselves back to the bus for the long ride back to the dorms.

I now desperately needed to wash clothes, and managed to wheedle laundry tokens (finally!) from the dorm office staff. The machines used special tokens rather than Greek coins, and these were always in short supply. Dumped clothes in the washer and decided to finish with the clothes before leaving for the university. All instructions on the washer and dryer were in German, with no translations (two semesters of German at IIT Madras had all come to nothing!). Punching a few random buttons got the machines on their way, and I waited, hoping they wouldn't ruin my clothes. After an indefinite wait (we had no clue as to how long the wash/dry operations would take), I request a cab for the run to the university. And a while later, another cab deposited me back at the dorms at the end of another great day. The Sunday saw all of us back at the university, working at a feverish pace to make progress on the projects.

Let us skip the routine details and jump directly to Thursday. This Thursday was a grand tour of the historical city of Chios, with Menelaos. Menelaos was born and brought up in Chios, and had several interesting stories to tell about this ancient city. We walked about the city, looking up at the architecture exhibited in the old buildings. Meneloas pointed out several different intricate styles adopted in the balconies overlooking the streets. Several buildings dated back to the 1800s. We made our way to a printing establishment that sold reprints of detailed hand engravings found in old Chios books. I was captivated enough to buy a couple of them. One depicts the central square of Chios city, as it had been in earlier centuries. The other shows ships in the old port of Chios.

As we entered the city square, we saw a tower rising up on our right, and I placed it immediately in one of the engravings I saw back at the printers. We walked further along to the castle, and took a detour around it. The castle had been built in the olden days to repulse pirate attacks. A major portion of the castle had apparently been buried in soil, and had only recently been excavated. It holds the distinction of being one of the few castles in the world that still has people living within its walls.

Our path cut back to the public garden. Tall palm trees lined the ways, and hidden among the greenery were the busts of several Greek philosophers. At the center was a statue of Kanari, who sailed a boat loaded with gunpowder into invading Turkish ships to save the city of Chios. I noticed that a street leading off the city square had been named in his honour.

We walked back into the castle, and it was amazing to see the number of people who lived there! Walking past a small Turkish cemetery, we moved along narrow streets lined by old and new houses on either side. Crumbling towers and walls marked the remains of the castle that once stood tall to protect the people of Chios.

We soon broke out of the castle and reached the seaside. Walking along the waterfront, we saw more examples of the old architecture before arriving at the UA restaurant for lunch. The rest of the day was rather routine, and involved assisting the project teams with their work.

Friday, when the students had to make their final presentations. The end of two weeks of arduous work interspersed with the best relaxing moments of the season. Most of the day was spent arranging for the evening's presentations, and helping the students with their last-minute problems (don't these always crop up!). After plodding through the talks, the "show" was opened to the public, and each group gave a short summary of their project, and what they achieved through it - in both English and Greek! At the end of it all, there was much relief that the intense program had come to a successful end. Speeches by the professors and some of the students. Gifts for everyone. The best project was awarded a prize. We said our preliminary goodbyes over pizza, and snapped pictures with friends. Promises to keep in touch and try to meet again soon.

We trickled into a pool room, and I tried my hand at billiards for the first time in my life. It was hard getting a hang of it initially (you'd think that knowing the laws of physics that govern the game would be enough!), but I soon got better, and pocketed a few balls along the way. A taxi ride back to the dorms, and I was ready to drop off until tomorrow. However, I stayed up long enough to pick up some Greek music CDs from Nick.

Saturday marked our last real day in Greece. I got up early, at 6:00 AM, to a dark morning sky. The sun was just below the horizon, and was beginning to lighten up the eastern sky. I decided to walk along the sea towards the ruins of windmills dating back to the old days of the castle. About fifteen minutes of brisk walking brought me to the windmills. As I watched, the red disc of the sun peeped up from the horizon. Growing rapidly in size, it took just a few minutes to be a full disc high up in the sky. I snapped pictures of the windmills and headed back for the dorms.

Espied George, Marge and Richard still on the beach since the night before, and walked down to meet them. A few more minutes on the beach, and it was back to our rooms. Saw off George and the Dutch students at around 9:00 AM, and took a few timed shots on the terrace using my tripod (the first and last use of the tripod on this trip!). Nick and I soon headed for the dock, were a ferry brought his computer over from Mitiline. Helped carry the heavy boxes to his office nearby. Pocketed a bunch of Chios postcards on the way to UA.

Picked up our laptop from the university. Called Chris Tsironis, who was a part of my group last year. Cleared my office of two weeks of cruft while I waited for Menelaos. We headed for the Archaeological Museum, with a running commentary of Chian history from Menelaos. The museum was beautiful! We walked through halls filled with well-pieced and organized collections of statues, inscriptions, pottery, jewelery, money and other daily artifacts excavated from Chios.

Met up with some of the Greek students who were in Boston the previous year. Lunched on the waterfront, and followed it up with four scoops of ice cream! I could hardly walk now, and just barely managed to get back to UA. A final e-mail check before leaving for the dorms. Dinner at a taverna close to the dorms, near the windmills, followed by a brisk walk to the dorms. Got to pack now, for the early morning flight that would take us back to Athens the next day...

26 August: Goodbye, Chios! Goodbye, Greece!

Having set the alarm clock to holler at 4:30 AM, I was jolted awake by Dan knocking on my door at 6:05, with the cabs already waiting at the door to take us to the airport. Jammed my remaining belongings into my bags, thankful that I had decided to do most of the packing the night before. Final goodbyes to whoever was awake, and off we dashed to Chios airport.

The flight brought us in to Athens fairly on time. We picked up our bags, and moved along through the crowded airport before locating our queue (a long one, too!). The Delta official decided to check my passport and I-20 for ten minutes before allowing me to proceed to check my bags in. We were finally free of the formalities, and roamed around the airport, looking for ways to spend our last Drachmas, and finally boarded the long flight back to New York's JFK airport.

After another uneventful flight marked by much sleeping, we arrived in New York in one piece, collected our bags and boarded a shuttle bus to the domestic terminal. Yet another turboprop flew us into Logan airport, and unloaded us on the tarmac. The American Airlines bus apparently did not know which gate to head for, and so aimlessly circled a few planes before dumping us at the terminal. A shocking two hours later, we had our bags (SOMETHING had to go wrong with the bags!). A completely jaded American delegation made its way to Cambridge.

It was definitely an amazing trip to the Mediterranean, and I hope I can visit there again, under less stressful conditions, to just sit on the beaches all day long... marvel at the beautiful sunrises... load up on cheese pie and salads... and forget that the rest of the world exists...