Day 4

Today the students wrote about their days and some of their highlights of the trip so far. Our excursion today was to Ancient Olympia!! Photo Link at the bottom.

Our trip to Greece kicked off with a 3am meeting at the Victoria airport, followed by three plane rides. The first of which was a very short ride from Victoria to Vancouver, followed by the second ride which was from Vancouver to Montreal. In Montreal we were assigned our seats and hustled to get good food before a very extended exhausting flight. The final 9 hours of our flying experience ended up with Louis losing his luggage and the news of an upcoming 4 hour car ride. The majority of us hadn’t expected the road trip to be as excruciating as it turned out to be. Fortunately, we were saved by a terrible roadside fast-food restaurant, which only left us with a more profound hatred of the van. The trip finally ended with us in Kyparissia, Greece, only to discover it was 11:00 am which left us with yet another full day. The past two days have been absolutely amazing, with the first having swimming, biking, and running all packed into a quite tiring triathlon, and the second being full of history and unfortunately rain. We all look forward to the upcoming events and activities of our Greece adventure!
- Owen, Anna and Alex

The Greece trip so far has been full of excitement and surprises. We have had rain, lightning, scorching heat, and beautiful mild days. On the first day we took part in a triathlon. It brought out the competitive nature in all of us and even though there were a few minor casualties we all thoroughly enjoyed it. The next day, we learned about the turtles. We learned how gravely endangered they are and how dangerous objects such as plastic bags or straws can affect the survival of a turtle whilst living near society. After learning the shocking news, we went to the beach to clean up debris that would affect a turtle’s life. On Tuesday we learned about and visited the ruins of the ancient city of Olympia. While we were there, we all competed in a race in the Olympic stadium. Everyone tried hard and the placing was tight. We then went to a museum which included statues from ancient Olympia. So far, this trip has been great and we hope for more awesome experiences to come with the rest of this trip.
- Louis, Cole and Marina

Today, June 26, the Greece team went to Olympia. We discovered the first Olympic stadium and training grounds as well as temples and statues built to worship the Greek gods. Unfortunately the weather was wetter than past years, but it was nice to be rained on whilst having a friendly race in the ancient Olympic stadium. After our tour of the stadium and training grounds, the team had a quick lunch then headed into the museum and continued on our tour. It was interesting to see the ancient sculptures and artifacts, even though most of them were in pieces. After we completed our tour of the museum, we headed into the town of Olympia and visited the museum of Archimedes. The museum included many of the inventions of Archimedes, for example, the famous Archimedes Screw. The many puzzles and hands-on activities kept everyone entertained and involved. The rest of our time in Olympia was spent wandering the town searching for souvenirs, eating pizza and ice cream and enjoy the positive spirit of the town and its people.
-Rocky Pan, Juliet Elber and Jack Jones.

So far on the Greece trip we have done a triathlon, helped with the loggerhead turtles and gone to the ruins of Olympia and it’s museum. The triathlon was tiring, but really fun. The hot weather made the swimming enjoyable. Biking was hard on the gravel roads and made steering difficult. The run felt like miles because we were so hot and tired but when we finished we felt we had achieved our goals. Secondly, the next day we went to a beach to help clean it for the turtles, despite the rain, and to learn about them. It was interesting and it felt good to help. Next, on the third day we went to Ancient Olympia. This was our favourite part so far and was very fascinating. The ruins were colossal and the guides painted a impressive picture of what it would have been like in the time of the ancient Greeks. The museum held beautiful sculptures and the statues of Nike and Hermes were really impressive. We have loved the trip so far and can’t  wait to do more.
- Katie, Cari, Jonah and Nathan

Over the past few days we had the pleasure of many experiences. Such experiences include, the Triathlon, our trip to Archleon, and our trip to Olympia.The triathlon was a fun and cool experience although some got injured. We got to interact with the NOKY kids and make new friends. The temperature was like we were going to melt and the task of the triathlon felt like a Hercules worthy task. The turtle excersion day was very fun, and included a lot of wet weather which felt almost like hail it was coming down so hard. The first group to do the beach clean got a lot of that kind of weather. After or before the beach clean, each group got an amazing presentation on the Mediterranean turtles, specifically the loggerhead turtle. We learned about the dangers affecting them, about their habitats and life in the ocean, and lastly about their sensitivity to light. Overall, we learnt a lot about pollution and things we can improve on in the future involving the many creatures of the sea. On our trip to Olympia we saw many ruins, that once helped the ancient Olympics take place. There, we saw the enormous temple of Zeus, temple of Hera and temple of Hermes. Along with the temples, we saw the "track" that the ancient Olympians ran on. And we were able to run a race of our own, which was an amazing experience. The meuseam held many other, smaller artifacts and some statues that we got to see. The mythology of the Olympians and the relation between the Olympics, the ancient Greeks and the gods were fascinating to learn about. Overall, the trip to Olympia was an amazing experience that we will never forget.

-Erik, Lizzie, Emma

When we woke up in the morning to see clouds and lightning we were all generally even more disappointed than thinking about walking around Olympia in the hot hot sun. Greece in the sun was too hot but Greece in the rain was worse. Or so we thought. When we arrived to Olympia after a long drive we were all ready to get out of the car. The clouds made us the perfect temperature. Thank gosh it stopped raining. Olympia ended up being amazing. Not only learning about ancient Olympian’s but walking where they walked and seeing what they saw 2500 years prior to us was incredible. One of the most interesting stories we heard was about the
time a woman dressed as a man trainer to train her son. They wanted to kill her when they found out but she was the daughter, sister, and mother of an Olympian Champion. Instead they enforced a new rule where trainers and athletes had to prove they were male in male events. Another cool thing we learned was that the Zeus statue was more than 13 metres high. Today taught us all not only about Ancient Greece but also about being optimistic and positive for every opportunity. We are looking forward to the awesome time we are going to have during the rest of the trip.
~ Alyssa, Ryan, Jamie

My experience in Greece so far has been a wonderful learning experience. I knew I was going to have fun from the moment our plane took flight all the way to the point where the ocean waves crashed against the shore. Once we stepped out of the airport and felt the tropical and humid breeze, we then came to a full realization that this will be the best school trip ever. On the first day of the trip, we met all the wonderful and welcoming citizens and staff that were at the hotel. The next day we put on our sports gear and were ready for the triathlon. The triathlon is a series of different sports that were played by the ancient Greeks and is a big part of the history of Greece. First, we went to the beach and picked out a bike for the first part of the triathlon and practiced riding. Once we finished, we did a small race in the ocean and ended up having a very fun and memorable time jumping in the waves. Finally, after we dried off, it was time for the race. The first part of the triathlon race was riding our bike and then racing on foot until we reached the finish line. Today we went to Olympia birthplace of the Olympics we learned about how the stadiums were made what events were in the first Olympics and ran were the ancient Greeks ran in there Olympics. After the race we went to a museum that had many sculptures of the gods and important people to the Greeks. At the end of the expedition we went to the Archimedes museum an then got free time to go shopping.
- Bree, Cypress and Ben.

Day 4 photos