Bridge Walk

Today Enrique and I had the most productive day in Greece so far. This morning started off great with it only taking one hour to get chest x-rays at the hospital! This is quite a feat considering yesterday we sat in a waiting room for three hours and when we were finally called it was to tell us we should leave. After the successful x-rays we went to the internet store and finally got connected. Woohoo! Judging by everything we had accomplished we figured it must have been 7 at night but when we got back to the apartment we found that it was only 10:30 AM. I then went to the civil engineering building to try and print my homework and miraculously I was met with no obstacles. It only took 20 minutes to get my login ID and print. After a delicious and free lunch of gigantic butter beans and spanikopita I saw there was still plenty of time to walk down to the Rio bridge.



The bridge is absolutely huge! The engineering that went into it is amazing and the views are breathtaking. The bridge is nearly two miles long and sits hundreds of feet above the ships passing beneath. On either side of the bridge are two mountain ranges topped with windmills. At the base of each side is an old fort which provides a stark contrast to the ultra modern span above. There was almost nobody on the bridge and it was really amazing to be alone with such an impressive structure. As we passed beneath one of the massive towers I saw some maintenance workers come up from beneath the steel grating of main span. I found out that they were from France and were the special maintenance crew that swings around on the cables all day and were featured in the program I watched about the bridge right before I left. It has been a truly incredible day and hopefully the good fortune will continue tomorrow as a group of us are catching a bus to see the ruins at ancient Olympia.