Trips

Trip 15 - 2007

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• 9 min read
Trip 15 - 2007
Max Slaughter, Jane Elliott, Nick Giuliani, Jennie Marshall, Sheehan Mitchell, Kristine Nowlain, & Stefan Cheplick in front of the Olympic stadium in Athens

Itinerary

  • Egypt: Cairo, Nile, Pyramids
  • Turkey: Istanbul, Galipoli, Kanakkale (Troy), Assos
  • Greece: Athens, Mycenae, Nemea, Olympia, Delphi, Ithica
  • Italy: Rome, Florence
  • Austria: Vienna, Mauthausen
  • Czechoslovakia: Prague
  • Switzerland: St. Moriz, Sils Maria, Zermatt, Zurich
  • Germany: Heidleberg, Frankfurt

Students

  • Stefen Cheplick
  • Jane Elliot
  • Nick Giuliani
  • Jennie Marshall
  • Sheehan Mitchel
  • Kristine Nowlain
  • Max Slaughter

Trip Leader

  • Mr. Taylor, age 74

Trip Assisstent

  • Paul Wilkinson (Vetran Host)

Video Coreographer

  • Jenn Nelson

Trip Highlights

Egypt

  • Cairo --- thick mob of Egyptians, standing packed together outside the air terminal exit, separate slightly for our passage-way
  • Familiar colonial hotel “Victoria” with a guard with a weapon on his lap
  • “We drove for miles through the Sahara without seeing anything until we reach a strange looking pyramid and find ourselves with an over supply of police and guards protecting us. Then we drove back along a Nile canal, through villages with very different looking people and I wanted to stop and communicate with them.” ---- Jenny Marshall, Arete 2007
  • Lake and Sudan (at the other end of Aswan dam one nears the death of central Africa)
  • River of time, the great Nile
  • The upset passenger "He appeared suddenly in his shorts on the boat deck. We were up at 6:00 a.m. to run laps on the deck with the Nile river below us. Barely awake, it was the first time we put on our running shoes on the journey. But we didn’t really know where we were going to run because there were chairs everywhere. Not to mention a bar in the middle of the deck. But we managed and were the first and only people up there as we ran around and around the green deck with images of the Nile rotating around us. Our feet pounded the deck surface and we knew we were disturbing everyone else on the boat. Mr. Taylor was in no mood to stop, so we didn’t speak up. Finally a British man did. By the appearance of his hair and his attire (just in his boxers) it was clear that he had’t woken peacefully. Instead he rose to a racket of runners pounding above him. “Excuse me sir, I hate to ruin your fun, but you’are making an awful racket down below.” That didn’t stop us that morning, but Mr. Taylor did decide to not run us up there again." ---- Jane Elliott, Arete 2007
  • Our flight to Cairo delayed from Luxor; "early to bed" impossible
  • Off to "city of the dead" early in the day; 120 degree heat greets us at great pyramid
  • Escape to hotel, sleep, seminar preparation, training up and down hotel stairs, engaging seminar on Gaza, Palestinians in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Watts, Harlem against the backdrop of millions living in the tombs of the City of the Dead in Cairo
  • Flight to Istanbul at 3:00 a.m.

Turkey

  • Blue Bosphorus from hotel balcony
  • Outdoor restaurant for evening mea in Istanbull
  • Magnificent color of Hellespont on drive to Aegean sea
  • Gallipoli, crazy drive, finally graves, sadness, thousands of boys died senselessly
  • Van swings out onto the ancient battlefield of Troy, carefully avoiding tipping over on tractor path
  • A precious run of death before ancient walls of Troy
  • The sunflowers
  • A well informed walk within ancient Troy
  • Wild drive through villages below Troy, then Assos, a temple, ruins of where Aristotle taught, a swim, a meal
  • Weminars on balcony in Istanbul with Asia across the water were invaded by consistent sounds of the trains below
  • "A meal and photo with fun Turkish restaurant owner in Istanbul on final evening in Turkey" ---- Jenny Marshall, Arete 2007

Greece

  • Unforgettable ride from the airport into Athens; Arete record for lack of space
  • Ethan Ford of Arete '87 provided valuable van assistance
  • The crazy leader romps us off through the flea market upon arrival at the Astor hotel for unknown reasons?
  • Arete meal of souvlaki changes everything
  • Dinner below Acropolis in a dark, engaging carless lane
  • First up on the great rock of Athenian history
  • Readings on Acropolis, in Agora, of Pericles by ancient cemetery
  • Luggage secured on top of van by rope; the trip goes on
  • One day in time --- leave Athens after 6:30 a.m. breakfast of dramatic view of the Acropolis, reaching Mycenae by 9:00 a.m., having lunch with Dr. Miller in his new home in Nemea after his lecture in the museum and our run on the Pan-Hellenic track in the ancient stadium; a stop near Corinth for a glimpse of a second Pan-Hellenic track and the starting mechanism; off the main road to Thebes and a view of the vast battlefield of Plataea where the Persians fell in 479 B.C.; then our meadow above Delphi dinner and evening under the stars with the track waiting for us below
  • Delphi by dawn; the temple, then the spectacular setting for a track without other travlers for awhile (i.e., third Pan-Hellenic stadium of four)
  • "Beware the weed whackers" filmmaker, ---- Jenn Nelson, Arete 2007
  • Afternoon in Olympia and the climb up the hill of Kronus; view of ancient Olympic track through pine (i.e., fourth and final Pan-Hellenic stadium).
  • First on the ancient track and our laps of time
  • Ithaki and the two harbors
  • Seminars in hotel patio before dinner at port in tavenas at night
  • The Arete run up and over Stavros and the plunge of purification into the sea
  • A lunch alone at various taveras for each student in a foreign country on a far away island
  • Our private location on the ship to Italy

Italy

  • Usual hotel where Arete has stayed in Rome many times fails to record our reservations; after finding a different one down the street, the Rome marathon at 9:00 p.m. by foot to magnificent dinner in Campo di Fiori and enormous surprise in the cellar of a restaurant brings honor to the leader
  • A favorite Arete youth hostel, the traditional run up the road to the villa; this one at 6:00 a.m.
  • A broom being thrown at Mr. Taylor by a pizza owner in Florence; the guy was really upset
  • "The sunset over the bridges of Florence" ---- Jenny Marshall Arete 2007
  • Austria
  • Camp grounds, camp grounds, camp grounds; "just five more kilometers"
  • A beer heavy owner and a meal of _________ and ________ by a lake in

Austria

  • Vienna, the Freud walk with readings from "Civilization and its Discontents" at street corners, the arrival to where Freud practiced psychoanalysis for over forty years, his private office, the photographs with wonderful captions for each person to carry and read through the museum
  • birthday evening, food, music in front of Rathaus on "Ring", the cigar in front of Freud's earliest office presented to a 74 year old man
  • Paul and Prague
  • A very clever parking arrangement at prime downtown hotel by a seasoned Arete driver
  • Paul Wilkinson of Arete '83 by the statue of Hus in the old square
  • Paul and Angelica barbecue in their new home; Jana appears with family; the world is good
  • Students sent out alone into the city of Hus to locate the Bethlehem chapel; one by one they appeared that afternoon at the destination, happy to have been "on their own"
  • Dinner below "The Castle", then the climb with company of Kafka to St. Vitas and a glorious night view of the church, the city
  • Austria
  • A concentration camp (i.e., Mauthausen near Linz) with a gas chamber was compromised for some of the students because of the casual atmosphere at the site; Bach, the somber, should dominate such a visit; non-the-less, entering a gas chamber made the horror of Nazi history real, along with the deep pit where workers carried heavy granite blocks to gradual death (e.g., some 120,000)

Switzerland

  • Sheehan makes younger Swiss friends by high jump pit on Arete track in St. Moritz
  • “Beauty of the Nietzsche hike.” Jenny Marshall, Arete 2007
  • Incredible mountain passes, music
  • Rain, no Matterhorn?
  • Boys fail "boy scout" test with tarp and sleep in laundry room
  • Aggressive Arete leader takes 2007 travel companions into mist, fog, a covered mountain above Zermat without breakfast; driver of service van contributes free trip to village when he picks Arete up hiking along the road; spares Arete 1/2 hour hike, or longer; displays opposite behavior of one obnoxious driver two years before; quick breakfast of one croissant each in village before the mountain
  • A wonder to behold; the Alps appeared above the mist, fog, clouds; deep reward for those who climbed
  • An evening meal by a river that history knows as the Rhone, beginning from the glacier above; remember the night of the Gringo's
  • Zurich offered a brief glimpse by imagination, or distant view, of Zwingli and the Reformation, Wagner and a opera house, Jung residing further up on the lake, Einstein coming down to sail, and Lenin rushing from his apartment to begin a revolution in 1917; Max and Nick pre-occupied for a moment with a less important historical figure (e.g., an older man doing sit ups and push ups naked nearby)
  • We avoided a van parking "fatality", some fell in love with a beautiful young woman where we were able to leave the vehicle; then one swan and the Arete meal on the lake, a wet up and down walk in the older part of the city and finally the apartment where Lenin exited from to begin the Russian revoution
  • It is over; off to Heidelberg, Germany; wait, he is pulling off the free-way; we walk through a charming historic village early in the morning and reach a rushing Rhine on its way to Basel and beyond; then the reason (e.g., the "captain" of "The Last Valley" was mortally wounded at the bridge that reached from the village to Germany on the opposite shore)

Germany

  • A beautiful university town, spectacular hotel setting at end of old bridge; the final dinner before the drive to the airport in Frankfurt early the next morning.

State meet goddess leads 2007 teammates through Olympic arch at Olympia, Greece.

Max on the 2007 Arete trip informs his companions of Constantine in Rome.

The serious is mingled with the playful as the face of Jane tells on Arete 2007.

Arete 2007 within the magnificent pillars of ancient Egypt.

The youngest on Arete 2007 is oh so playful in the souk.

This is likely the most beautiful setting for a track stadium in the world. I held them back when we were near to the entrance and then sent each student separately into the 7th century B.C. track Delphi, Greece. I told them to think of their respective track lives as it came into view.

Max found Istanbul "western" after Cairo. Turkey is almost always one of the student favorites. Years later they still feel this way.

Jenny was our youngest one, but she didn't miss a beat. We left Istanbul early in the morning for Athens and there was little else to do but sleep.

We had a special lunch on the porch of the new home that Dr. Miller built overlooking the ancient ruins of Nemea, Greece. Nemea is a special Arete home, and Steve Miller is our special archaeologist.

Arete 2007 "set" in the starting grooves at Delphi stadium.

More preparation for Rome while at sea between Greece and Italy. The students concentrate because each of them will be presenting information about a particular site.

Paul and Angelika hosted Arete 2007 in their home in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Paul, of the Arete 1983 trip, also was our host in Russia in 2000. They are very special to Arete West.

State high jump star, Sheehan Mitchell, shows Swiss athletes her stretching routine at our "Arete" track in St. Moritz.

Max on our Nietzsche trail in Sils Maria sharing his interpretation of what Nietzsche meant by the verse that he received the night before to ponder.

Jane of Arete 2007 with her running friends in Ghana on her study abroad university program in Africa.