Day 4

This morning we started work at 8. We began by brushing the walls of the old prison which have been vandalised with graffiti. Then we painted them white, it dried instantly in the heat. Finally we painted a cream colour coat to make the prison look clean for the exhibition. 

After this, we cleaned the fountain ready for painting tomorrow. 

After work, we had free time - some of us had a nap, whilst some of us helped to prepare lunch and then played cards. 

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Today began the first day playing the game "Assasin" 

It's sort of like cluedo; we all randomly selected a name, weapon and place from a hat and our mission is to 'get' that person. For example: Ruth, with a flip flop in the Kitchen. The aim is to be the last one standing...

Next, we had our second day of Greek lessons from Yorgos and Giovanna. Megan and Rachael are proving to be pretty good at learning Greek and began a competition between themselves - 'who can say 'Kalimera' (good morning) to the most Greek locals" They like it a lot when we speak their language. 

Yorgos then did some activities with us about Democracy. We went to the cell we cleared yesterday and set up the exhibition ready for Friday. Furthermore, we learnt about the period in the 70's when Greece was in a dictatorship and found out that people had no freedom of speech. They were locked in prisons such as the one we are staying in for having a different political opinion. 

Finally this evening we went to the local market and bought some traditional Greek worry beads called Koboloi. For dinner we had calamari, everybody tried it (some of us for the first time.) Libby ate two massive portions she loved it so much. 

Hope you're all well at home... 

Day 3 - Oropos

7:30 wake up didn't go down well with everyone...

After breakfast we began our first day of work. We split into two groups and divided the tasks to be done between us. One group: Megan, Rachael, Ruth, Hannah and Jodie were responsible for clearing out the cell of the old prison; which we will be setting up an exhibition in over our time here in Greece. We brushed all the plaster from the ceiling and got a 'little bit' dusty. We wore masks and protective gloves to keep safe. 

Whilst they did this, the other group: Libby, Lili, Naiomi, Julie and Liz, picked litter from the large area around the prison (left behind from the concert last night) and filled 2and1/2 black bags of rubbish. 

At 10:30 we had our break, and swapped over. Jodie's group finished the litter picking and Julie's group washed the floors of the cell - Naoimi got a bit excited with the hosepipe, Libby got slightly drenched! 

For lunch we all got involved in making traditional Greek Tzatiki - it tastes very different to what it does at home. 

We smothered ourselves in sun cream and made our second trip to the beach. This time there was a lifeguard so we could swim in the sea :) Even though it was 39degrees today, (much hotter than yesterday) we've all become accustomed to the warm weather - so much better than that at home. 

Also, on our walk back we bought our first ice cream in Oropos. 

In our free time we played cards (again) - just to let you know: Rachael finally won a game! 

We also decided to give each other nicknames - as there's 7 of us we thought the 7 dwarfs seemed appropriate. 

Doc - Naiomi (for being a natural leader)

Happy - Ruth (for always having a smile on her face)

Sleepy - Megan (for being the champion of falling asleep first every night so far)

Bashful - Rachael (very giggly...) 

Dopey - Hannah (some interesting comments made) 

Sneezy - Lili (we're constantly saying "bless you") 

Grumpy suited nobody so Libby has adopted the name 'tiny' (for being the tallest of the group)

This evening, we had a Greek lesson. We wrote down the Greek Alphabet and learnt how to write our names and some basic phrases in Greek. 

For food tonight we had Suvlaki, (sort of like Kebabs.) We agree this is one of the best dishes so far. 

We've really enjoyed our first first full day in Oropos and can't wait for tomorrow!! 

Day 2 - Athens/Oropos

After a good frist night sleep in Greece, we got up at 7:25am and had breakfast at 8:00am (Greek breakfast). Then at 9:30am we left the hotel and walked for about 20 minutes to the bus stop. We got on the bus at 10:05am and were on the bus to oropos for an hour-ish. When we got there we walked for five minutes to the old prison and had a little look around and had lunch (peppers stuffed with rice and meat). The some of us went to get food will others did the washing up.

Then we had free time until 4:00pm and then we had a talk about what we are going to do over the next couple of days. Then we went to beach at 5:30pm but couldn't swim because there was no life guard so we sat in the shallows.

We came back and had showers and then went out for dinner at 7:00pm.

Then we came back and listened to the local choirs sing.

Then had a bit of free time before we went to bed! 

P.s. Rachael is rubbish at cards...

First day - Athens

After staying the night at the royal holloway, we got up this morning at 3:30 am  to leave at 4:00am with breakfast No. 1 in hand (croissant). We arrived at the airport at 4:30 am and had to wait half an hour to check in.

We got on the plane and set off on time. The flight was 3 and a half hours long, but wasn't as bad because breakfast no. 2 was awaiting (cooked breakfast). We arrived at Athens at 12:10 pm, then got in the taxis/mini buses to our hotel and met Xenia from Citizens in Action. At 3:00 pm we then had our picnic lunch on the roof of the hotel. 

We then walked through Athens and met up with the local guides at 4:00pm and they took us to a little cafe that served traditional pastries and we had lots of sweet things there.

They then took us to a local park and we played a game.

We then walked back to meet up with Xenia again and said good bye to the Greek guides (rangers in Greece). We went for tea at a cute little restaurant  but we had eaten so much that we couldn't quite eat all of the three course meal. We then got taxis back to the hotel at 8:45pm, had showers and went to bed!!!!!!!!!

Our project

After months of organising raffles, bag packs, coffee evenings, parties for Brownies, curry nights, discos, afternoon teas, craft stalls and badge selling plus much more - it is nearly time to head off on our trip - just under 5 days until we have landed in Greece! It has all been the result of lots of hard work by every one of the girls taking part in the trip to fundraise for their international experience

We shall be staying in a town just north of Athens, working on restoring a lighthouse and with a local 'festival of democracy' taking place whilst we are there. Lots of extra cultural trips and activities have been planned and it's going to be an action packed two weeks

The girls will be writing the blog as we go along and we will aim to update it when we can but our internet access will be limited. We will do our best to keep you updated on our adventures!

Our second briefing weekend

Photo Challenge! 📷

Our mission was to replicate different Greek items by using only ourselves and the resources we found on the beach around us, this was our outcome:

    Olympic Rings 

    Greek Flag

    Greek dancing 

    Greek island 

    Mosaic 

    Happy and Sad mask

    Temple 

    Greek Theatre 

    Solar System

    Marathon 

Greece Badge

We designed our badge at briefing weekend, with our mascot taking centre stage! We also put together some ideas for us to run Greek theme nights with our units - things like tin foil Greek pictionary, building a marshmallow Acropolis and having an Olympic night with Greek food to taste. We will be selling the badges for £1 each as well to help raise funds for our trip