Greece Lightning

When I study abroad again next year I was considering two, maybe three places. London, Germany and maybe a return trip to Italy. Not only is there a new city on that list, but it’s at the top of that list: Athens.

It was beautiful. Even with the sand storm from the Sahara that occurs once a year (from what I’m told). Even with the clouds and the breezy 68 degree temperature. It was amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible.

First off, it was cool to see buildings older than the ones in Rome. And, unlike Rome, there were some modern buildings blended in. I don’t want to say Rome’s living in the past, but I don’t think I’ve seen a building less than 500 years old since I got here. Anyway, here’s the rundown of the Greece trip:

Day 1-After the flight was delayed for an hour on the runway and two hours of bus/subway rides were taken to our hostel, it was already after 4 p.m. by the time we arrived. Having not eaten since 7 a.m., we were understandably very hungry. We went to a restaurant close to our hostel and then just started walking down the street. Eventually we got to a subway station and ended up at the Acropolis. We found a rock nearby that had a great view of it and Athens. That’s when I realized that this was the best decision ever. Looking at the lit up Acropolis, we all had a great reflective time.

Day 2-Saturday was taken up with a ferry boat ride to Aegean Island. What was supposed to be a 30 minute boat ride according to our tour guide (Semir) turned into an 80 minute ride. But it was still pretty cool. I mean how often do you get to sit back and watch the Olympics in the country they were started in? We walked along the beach and went out for seafood for lunch. I had the weirdest meal I’ve had in Europe, “small fried fish,” which, I thought meant like a whole fish that’d been fried. Not quite (see picture below).



Not exactly what I thought "small fried fish" was, but I guess it makes sense.



I'm on a boat!

Once we got back to the mainland, we got dressed up for a nice dinner. Afterwards, we stopped by a liquor store to pick up a couple beers and a bottle of something called Ouzo (never again) because honestly very little sounded more appealing than having a beer while looking over Athens and the Acropolis. We met some people from Indianapolis, going to school in France, visiting Athens (yeah I had to read that a couple times too) and went to a bar with them. Around 2 a.m. they wanted to keep the party going, but we were ready for bed so we headed back to the hostel. But not before stopping at McDonalds for a late night McFlurry.

Day 3-The most exciting day of the trip. We finally made it up to the Acropolis and saw the…wait for it…Parthenon. It was another one of those “I can’t believe I’m here” moments that have happened pretty regularly the last couple months. This was definitely one of the top five moments of my trip so far. It was incredible. The views. The temples. All of it was a lot to take in. Luckily, I took roughly 98,000 pictures so I can always look back. Another bonus: since it was Sunday it was free! Then it was souvenirs, one last Gyro, and back to the airport.



View from (one side of) the top of the Acropolis.



Group picture at the Parthenon.


A few awesome things about Greece: Hadrian (who appears in the first picture of this post with me), one of the wild dogs that followed us around at the Acropolis protecting us from all the centipedes all the while reminding me of Tess, R.I.P. puppy; the food, while some of it was weird (the fish and shrimp) it was still delicious and Gyros will never taste the same again; watching the Olympics in Greece; and getting to say I’ve been to Athens, the Parthenon, and Greece.

All in all we’re going to call it another hugely successful (and way to short) weekend trip. To combat that, this weekend we leave Rome Thursday at 4:40 and arrive at our next destination around 7. Where are we going this time? I’ll give you a hint, it rhymes with Darpelona, Train. That’s right, Barcelona baby! So far we have three definitive plans: Razzmatazz, one of the largest nightclubs in Europe, jumping into the Mediterranean (because there wasn’t enough time on the island to do it in Greece) and on Saturday night going to the FC Barcelona game against Malaga, which, we have tickets for!

Long story short: it should be good times!