Monday, June 11, 2018

The Experience of Being Stranded


On June 9th Saturday morning, we embarked on a hike of a of lifetime. The views and process of hiking the Samaria Gorge was incredible. We worked together as a team to make sure everyone made it out at the same time. 

After the hike we spent the day relaxing at the small village at the end of Samaria Gorge. It was fulfilling to successfully complete the largest gorge in Europe. The entire thing was a great bonding process and I really got to know the other students on the trip pretty well. The following morning we learned that all boats departing the village were canceled and we were stranded. Technically, we weren’t stranded because we could have hiked back up the Samaria Gorge, but it wasn’t feasible to hike back up the Gorge in that heat. Therefore, we decided to spend another night in the small village and wait for the boat the next day. 

If Saturday was fun, Sunday might have been even better. We took an hour hike to another smaller village where 1,000 year old St. Paul Church is located. We were met with great hospitality by the three villagers who lived there. We ate great food, listened to great Greek music from the 1960’s and 1970’s, and finished our excursion by swimming in the sea. 

This excursion showed me that “going with the flow” can be the better option than planning everything out in much detail. As a group, we didn’t plan much for our weekend and I am sure it would have been impossible to plan out a weekend that we had. You can’t make this stuff up. 

-John (Yanny)

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