ATHENS, GREECE

Blog on Greece

I LOVE GREECE!!!!  So this past weekend I went to Athens, Greece with my friend from home (who also goes to CofC) Stefanie Smith.  We met our friend Matt McGann from home there because he is studying in London this semester.  Also, our friends Rachael Bacon, Mike Lois, and Sarah Hooper are all studying in Athens this semester.  It was so crazy being in Greece with 5 fellow Bethlehem Central High School grads! 

            Our voyage started out with a 6 hour bus ride late Wednesday night from Seville to Madrid.  Stef and I did this because flights out of Madrid are a lot cheaper than Seville.  The ride went well and we arrived in Madrid early Thursday morning.  A few hours later we were on our flight into Athens!

            Rachael was waiting for Stef and I at the bus stop in Athens and brought us to our hostel (which was pretty nice as hostels go).  Once we dropped our stuff off we headed to Rachael’s apartment.  Across from her apartment is the world’s GREATEST gyro place.  For anyone who doesn’t know what a gyro is, it’s definitely the greatest contribution the Greeks have made to the world which consists of shaved bits of chicken (or lamb or beef, but of course I got chicken), french fries, tomatoes, onions, TAZIKI SAUCE (creamy cucumberish sauce, hard to explain but soooo delicious, all wrapped in a pita type thing that’s way better than a pita and thicker. So anyways, best thing ever, only cost TWO EURO per gyro, we were in heaven! After that we went to Rachael’s apartment for a little then went for a walk.  Rachael brought us to the outside of the Acropolis (where the Parthenon is) and up this cliff type thing called St. Stephen’s Rock.  The view was amazing! In front of us was the entire city of Athens and behind us was the Acropolis.  By this time it was dark out, but all of the ruins are lit up at night so it looked really cool.  After our walk Rachael had a night class for a few hours so Stef and I wandered around then got some wine at a really cool wine bar until she was done.  When Rachael was out of class, she came and met us and showed us around some more.  We headed back to our hostel around 1 or so and decided not to go out because we were exhausted from our trip and had to wake up at 6:30 the next morning for Agila Island (and for two college student, that is EXTREMELY early).

            We woke up early the next morning, showered, and met up with Rachael.  She brought us to one of her favorite bakeries for some breakfast where I had my first Greek Spinach Pie.  AMAZING!  They’re kind of like a flakey pastry type dough with cheese (I’m assuming it’s feta) and cooked spinach inside.  SO delicious.  They also make plain cheese, apple, and vanilla which are all supposed to be great too.  After breakfast we met up with Sarah and their friend Kolby and headed to the Port of Greece to catch our ferry to the island.  We had decided on going to the island that day because it was Greek Independence Day and a lot of things were closed in Athens in the morning and afternoon.  Agila is a really small island, but it is the fastest and cheapest to get to from Athens and it is very beautiful.  The water is such a unique shade of teal blue and all of the grass was extremely green, it looked like paradise.  Sarah has a Greek friend who lives on the island and she came to meet us when we got in.  We went up some hill to see the only “ruins” on the island; however, it turned out that the “ruins” were really just a big  old column.  The big old column was cool, but the view from the hill was definitely the best part.  We could see all along the shore of the island and all around us were fields of green grass filled with yellow flowers.  We soaked in the breath-taking view for awhile then headed to the main street of the island to see their Independence Day parade.  It was cool, by far my favorite part was at the end little kids dressed up in traditional Greek dancing uniforms danced in the middle of a big circle for everyone to watch.  They were so cute! At the end of the parade we got some lunch, I got another gyro (it was very good but I still think that the ones by Rachael’s apartment were the best) and we all split some taziki sauce that came with the pitaish type bread stuff to dip it with.  Stefanie got a Greek salad (I didn’t because they’re mainly tomatoes and I really don’t like tomatoes) but I tried some of it and it was delicious.  After lunch we walked around some more and then headed back to the dock.  Apparently Agila has the best pistachios in Greece, so we decided to get some.  Sarah’s Greek friend told us that the best way to eat them is with honey, so we all split this jar of honey that was full of pistachios.  It sounds like a weird combination, but it was really great!

Sarah Hooper, their friend Koby, Stef, Rachael, and I

            When we got back into Athens, our friend Matt McGann had just arrived.  After he dropped his stuff off we hiked up this “hill” (I swear its practically a mountain) that is in the center of Athens called St. George’s Hill.  We planned it so that we would get to the top by sunset, and sure enough we did!  It was a beautiful orange pink sunset over the city of Athens and in the distance past the small mountains, you could see the Mediterranean Ocean.  We hung out up there for a while then eventually headed back down the “hill” to get changed and ready for the night.  Without sounding too lame or mushy, I have to admit that it really was great being with Rachael, Stef, and Matt; it made me realize how lucky I am to have such a great group of friends at home and it was just great to be around people who really know me for awhile.

            For dinner Stef, Matt, Rach, and I went to a restaurant in the Placa.  At all of the restaurants there they draw tourists in by offering them free wine with their meals.  We were tired of walking, and some free wine sounded good so we chose a restaurant, enjoyed our free wine, and all got spinach pies.  After dinner we headed to Rachael and Sarah’s apartment, and hung out with their roommates and got ready to go clubbing.  One of their Greek friends got us in to this really nice club where apparently all the famous and wealthy Greeks go to, we had a blast!  Got into the hostel around 5 and then got up at 9 to start sight seeing around Athens.

            We got mini pies for breakfast (I swear that they’re really small).  I tried apple, cheese, and spinach.  They were delicious!  And 40 cents each so that was kind of awesome.  We first went to the Acropolis.  In the Acropolis is the Theater of Dianisis (this ancient stone theater that the Greeks used, so cool), the Temple of Nike, some other cool temple, and the Parthenon.  All of these are from around 2000 BC so it is really incredible that they are all standing.  It was also really cool learning a little about the ancient Greek culture as well as mythology.

Theater

Inside Acropolis

Parthenon!

Me Rach Stef and Matt in front of the Parthenon!

  After that we headed to the temple of (?!?!) which was also really cool.  Next we went to the Temple of Zeus and met up with our friend Mike Lois from home.  Mike is also studying in Greece and his parents are from Crete(I’m pretty sure that’s where?) and so he speaks Greek fluently, so it was pretty cool to see him in action.  The Temple of Zeus was ENORMOUS! It was so tall, and its just so incredible that it’s around 4,000 years old and is still standing.  After Zeus’ temple we went to the ancient Olympic Stadium where the Greeks used to hold their Olympics.  It was pretty much a huge stadium built around a track.  It was amazing just being in a stadium where the ancient Greeks used to compete.  Sometime in the 20th century they held the Olympics there again too.  After the Olympic stadium we went back to Rachael’s grabbed some gyros and went back to Rachael’s to relax for a while.  Later, we went to see the changing of the guards in front of the Greek Parliament building.  It was hilarious.  There were two guards wearing these spandex tight type things and these shoes that had poofballs on the tip of them.  They did this coordinated dance type thing where they did some kicking and marching, it was hilarious.  Next we walked through the park, which was very beautiful.  They randomly have a petting zoo there with random animals and an old Greek man was feeding the geese spaghetti.  Random. 

View of Temple of Zeus from Parthenon

Matt Me Rach Stef and Mike in front of Temple of Zeus

Temple of Zeus

Olympic Stadium

WE WIN!

Changing of Guards

New best friend

            Later we went back to Rachael’s apartment, split some taziki and bread, split a piece of baclevah (I know that’s spelled completely wrong), and had some Greek beer, I think it was called Mythos.  We all hung out then went to a Greek bar where they had pitchers of hot liquor that you pour into a shot glass and take as a shot.  It kind of tasted like apple pie.  Apparently it’s a typical Greek drink to get, so I’m proud that I was able to assimilate slightly into their culture.  After the bar we went to another club.  It’s funny because Greeks DON’T dance.  Like they stay out until 6 in the morning at clubs that play loud music; however, they don’t dance at all.  So Rach, Stef, Sarah, Mike, Matt, and their friends who’re studying in Athens with them kind of went in a separate room where we could all dance spastically in true American fashion.  We had a blast, it was so much fun being out with a bunch of friends from home.  Around 3:30 am Stef  and I had to leave to go back to the hostel to grab our stuff before going on the 5 am bus to get to the airport.  We said our goodbyes to our fellow Bethlehem grads, then  Rach brought us to grab one last spinach pie (unfortunately none of the gyro places were open L) .  It was sad saying goodbye to Rachael especially because (Rachael I realize you’re probably reading this and are going to make fun of me) I don’t know when I’ll see her next because that lucky lucky girl might be working on Santorini Island in Greece this summer!

Bethlehem!! Sarah Rachael Stef Mike Me and Matt

<3

            After our goodbyes Stef and I (who were looking like sleepless zombies at this point) somehow managed to get on the bus and get to the airport okay, arrived in Madrid around 10 then got a 6 hour bus back to Seville. Oh, and did I mention that the time changed at 1 o’clock that morning in Greece and went ahead an hour then we time zone changed on our flight? Yup haha, it did, it was definitely a very long day of traveling.

            In conclusion, I love my friends (it was AMAZING to be able to meet up with so many familiar faces while studying abroad), I LOVE Greece (Allison and Colleen one of you better study abroad there so I can visit and we can go to Santorini and some other islands and the other one of you better go to Italy), and I LOVE GYROS AND SPINACH PIE!!