My fourth week in Athens was pretty friend- and tourism-focused! On Monday, I met up with a childhood friend who is now a Greek Orthodox nun, and then visited Sounion with the Phoenix Athens residency director and his college roommate where we took in the Temple of Poseidon and swam in the Aegean Sea. Tuesday I was able to get a little studio time in, and then my colleague and good friend Stacey came to visit that evening through Saturday morning! We hopped on a cruise to visit several Greek islands, and then stayed for two nights in Aegina. We did a four-hour ocean kayak tour (it was amazing but also as a solo kayaking novice, I think two hours might have been more within my comfort zone) around Agistri and several nearby uninhabited islands, rented bikes and biked part of Agistri as well, went swimming and snorkeling a number of times, and generally had a blast. We then returned to Athens and visited the Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis itself!

On Saturday, I tried to hunt down a local artisans’ festival Stacey and I had driven past in a taxi, and I finally found it… but it wasn’t going to open for a couple more hours so I decided to visit it on Sunday instead. I then spent the rest of the day in the studio. Sunday, I went back to the Monastiraki flea market and Plaka districts as they were nearby the festival (which ended up not being that exciting, but I would’ve wondered if I didn’t go!), and I purchased a carry-on-sized piece of luggage that should hopefully help me be able to get all of my artwork back to the US. (After research, shipping seemed less advisable than taking it with me, but I was already close to the weight limits on my way here and am making artwork that involves heavy materials.) Then that afternoon, it was back into the studio!