It was a three hour plane ride in which I mostly spent sleeping and reading. (It was actually the longest flight I had been on while I was in Europe. Isn't that crazy that I can travel across Europe in three hours on a plane, but it takes 6 hours to fly from Washington to Miami! We are quite a large country) Once we finally landed, it was time to find our way to the metro where we would catch a ride into the city of Athens and locate the AirBnB we were standing at.
The place we were staying was about 2 miles out of the city center which had its pros and cons. The pros were that it was quiet at night and most of the restaurants/shops were a lot cheaper because they weren't trying to sell to tourists. The cons were that we had quite a ways to walk to get to all of the touristy sites and when we did go to the stores, no one spoke English. The only other con to going to Athens was that if the people didn't speak English you couldn't try and sound out the word like you could Spanish or French. It is literally Greek to me, an entire different alphabet that I have no idea were sounded out. (But for your reference, this is the Greek alphabet)
Once we made it to the AirBnB we were staying at, our host was very kind and provided us with all sorts of maps and information to get around to the city center of Athens. We asked him for a place to eat, once he left we took off!
The place we wanted to go wasn't very far from we were staying, but like I said earlier, no one spoke English! The menu had very few pictures on it, so we could barely determine what we were going to get to eat! It was such a different experience! The three of us finally picked out Gyro and we were pleasantly surprised!
I have never had Greek food before, so I didn't know what to expect, but what we got for dinner was chicken, tomato (I picked them out), lettuce, chips and some delicious tasting sauce all wrapped up in a slice of Pita. I believe it was called Gyros. While we were eating dinner we looked up how to say thank you in Greek, because when you're in a foreign country it's always nice manners to learn how to say thank you! (In case you are wondering this is how you say thank you in Greek ευχαριστώ
It actually sounds like Ef-Caristo)
After dinner, we wandered back towards the flat we were staying in and stopped by a grocery store to pick up food for breakfast for the next morning and more importantly dessert! It was an interesting experience to look for different foods that we weren't used to!
The next morning (April 26th) it was our time to explore Athens! The great city of the Greeks! We took off at about 9:30 in the morning after having our own homemade breakfast. Our first thing that we wanted to see was the Acropolis, which features the Temple of Athena, Temple of Nike and the Parthenon and one or two large theaters. On our way to the hill, we passed a large open square full of different stalls selling fresh fruit, but mainly strawberries. Amazingly, you could smell them as you walked pass the stalls.
We got a bit turned around on our way, we ended up walking pass a large building that used to be a library, but we didn't stop and go in.
Unfortunately, as you can see, the Acropolis rests on a large hill, so we had to hike uphill for a ways and Greece is a lot closer to the equator than London, so the three of us were sweaty quite profusely. (And of course the only clothes I had brought was long sleeves and long pants. I was not very happy.)
Thankfully, because we were students in London, we made it through without having to pay for a ticket! No unfortunately, I don't know that much about these buildings or the history of them. What I do know is that the Greeks must have been very strong, because these buildings were ginormous.
This was the Odeon of Herodes Atticus
Athena's Temple
The Parthenon. (I know it's not the classic side that most pictures are taken from, but the other side was, just my luck, under construction!)
I was not very happy about that! I don't like construction very much even though I know it's important to keep these buildings up and running. (They are quite a bit old)
This was also the cool view from the top of the Acropolis!
Afterwards the three of us hiked back down the hill, on the way down, we passed this cat sleeping in the sun on Nike's Temple, what I wouldn't have given to be that cat at that moment.
We then stopped for a nice cool frozen lemonade that was €5! It was expensive, but totally worth it!
We then worked our way to the main tourist square close to the Acropolis museum and got a pretty cheap lunch of a rolled sausage for me and some sort of pizza slice for BG and SJ. We then meandered towards the Temple of Zeus, browsing through different tourist shops looking for items to take home.
Unfortunately, there isn't much left of Zeus's temple. Just a few pillars and the foundation.
I still can't believe how large this thing was. The only way I can think that the Greeks made any of the huge buildings...
We didn't spend much time at the Temple of Zeus because there wasn't much to see. So we continued to walk and on the way we passed a large crowd and lots of cyclists. There was a family race going on that day, because people of all ages were on bikes riding the same direction.
We finally made it to our next destination...the Olympic Stadium!!!
Once again this place was HUGE! It was fun to see and pretend like I was watching and participating.
These seats weren't very comfortable as you can imagine, they were made out of stone.
And of course the minute we tried to take some pictures of the podium, a large group of students showed up and ruined the effect.
Thankfully, the weather wasn't too bad walking around instead of hiking up a large hill, so we made our way back towards the Acropolis to find some more souvenirs. We ended up finding a large section of shops that sold different souvenirs for a reasonable price. In fact, these shops wound all around the base of the Acropolis and we very fun to browse in. We didn't have many plans for the rest of the afternoon, so we would step into any shop that caught our eye.
Most of the small streets looked like this. Some sort of vine or decoration hanging between buildings and people walking about.
There were TONS of different shops, some sold clothing, some sold glassware, painted plates, olive oil, different items made of olive wood, lots of apron shops (don't worry, I did stop and get myself ANOTHER apron!), foods and goodies, and the typical shops with magnets, keychains, etc.
After walking through the shops and getting our fill of items to take home, we made our way over to a large garden area that housed a bunch of ruins, one of which was the Temple of Hephaestus and a large building filled with old statues.
Let me tell you, it sure felt like a dream to sit in the shade and look at all the beauty that surrounded me! I couldn't believe I was there!
After that the three of us were pretty pooped and we knew that we had a long walk back home, so we headed back to the flat we were staying in. Unfortunately, we realized our mistake when we made it back to the area of town we were in. Because it was Sunday, a lot of the shops were closed, so we had to deal with fast food from a shop down the road from where we were staying. Thankfully, one of the girls who was helping us spoke English, so we could at least communicate with her what we wanted.
Once our food craving was sated, we headed back to the flat and crashed!
Monday April 27th we left about the same time in the morning to find a new adventure. Previously, while on the Acropolis, BG pointed out a large hill that she knew was a good hiking spot and a viewpoint. So we headed in that direction. We ended up getting lost a couple of times because we didn't really have a map, it was more of a "I see the hill so we should head that way" sort of game. None of us were prepared for the hike up. BG was wearing a dress and both SJ and I were in jeans. Needless to say once we reached the top, we were quite hot and sweaty and needed to sit in the cool shade for a couple of minutes. But it was totally worth it!
At the top of a hill stood a small chapel that you could go in and worship in, along with a bell tower and the Greece Flag.
There was also a small restaurant on top of the hill, so we had lunch and dessert as well!
Now I'm sure you're wondering why the heck were you bored? And let me tell you, we saw a ton of things the day previously! And we didn't really have an agenda we were trying to fill, most of the things that were on our bucket list had been accomplished!!! But we did find something to do! We ended up getting on this little touristy train (not a real train, just a little car that was pulling coaches for people to sit on and it would give us a tour of the main parts of the city) and saw all the sites we had already seen, but we were SITTING DOWN! It was so nice to sit down and see all of the city one last time!
After killing an hour or so on the Athen's Happy Train (yes that's what it was called). It was time for dinner, so we did a very touristy thing and sat down at a restaurant with pictures in their menu. (A word of caution, the best food in foreign countries is usually found in places where the menu isn't in English and the foreign language, has pictures on it, or a waiter or the like standing outside the shop trying to encourage people to sit down and eat at their place.)
I don't really remember what I had to eat, but it was alright. Some sort of chicken kebab dish. (With chips of course!)
After dinner, it was time to head home for the last time and say goodbye to Athens.
The next morning, (April 28th) we packed up our belongings and headed to the train station that would take us back to the airport. On the metro on the way there, we saw some Avengers posters and it was pretty cool to be able to see them written in Greek.
The flight home went pretty smoothly, and we got back halfway through the afternoon, right at the beginning of rush hour. And let me tell you, dragging your suitcase through a crowded train station and then onto the tube is a very fun experience (NOT!). I was just glad that I didn't have a lot to carry because I packed pretty light to Greece! I said my goodbye to SJ and BG at the train station because they were headed the opposite direction, and then I headed home to relax. Because I finally had a week off before my next trip! I had things in London that I needed to accomplish!
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