Athens

Hey everyone! This morning we got up at 4:30 to catch our 4:45 shuttle to the airport on the outskirts of Rome. I didn’t sleep that good because I slept on the couch which was not nearly long enough for me; but oh well. We didn’t have any trouble making our flight, but of course I again had to check my bag at the gate because it wouldn’t fit in their luggage bin outside the gate. Those things are so much smaller than the actual overhead bins on the plane, it’s frustrating, and so I paid the 50 Euro to check my bag. We arrived in Athens at 9:40 local time, one hour ahead of Rome time. We stepped off the plane and immediately recognized the language barrier. The airport provided both Greek and English, but once we left the airport, it was all Greek. We took a 50 minute train ride on their subway to the downtown area from what I gather and walked around the streets looking for our hostel. It took us about 15 minutes to find our hostel even though it was a street over from where we got off the subway. We tend to ask the policeman directions a lot for directions and usually they are helpful. One policeman directed us in the wrong direction, but then another was really precise and got us to the hostel. We left our luggage at hostel since we were way earlier then our check-in, so we left for lunch. We ate a Greek restaurant, I wasn’t too fond of. I got some sort of chicken and it was alright. It was hard leaving the comfort of Italian food, especially because it was so good.

After lunch we ran back to the hostel, because I forgot my camera, and then we headed up to the Acropolis where the Parthenon was. It was quite a hike up to the top, but there was a beautiful view from the Mars Rock and the top of the Acropolis. We spent about an hour and half at the top, taking pictures and enjoying the view. The Parthenon was under some sort of restoration project and you could tell where they had rebuilt part of it because the rock was a brighter white then the ancient stones. After leaving, we discovered that there wasn’t much else to do in Athens. I always figured there would be a bunch of history like Rome, but apparently there isn’t nearly as much to do. You could spend half a day here and see all that you need to see. I also heard from some students staying at the hostile about Athens being a bad city to be out late in. I heard about people getting mugged outside the hostels in the bad part of town (thankfully we are in the good part). I also noticed graffiti most everywhere. Graffiti is present in most every town we’ve been in, but especially Athens. Every street you walk down, graffiti is on the walls of the street. I also noticed a very large police presence while walking around. Tonight after we had dinner at the Hard Rock (which was really nice, partially because we got free refills and a full stomachJ) we saw police in groups of probably 10-15 at a time. Some had riot shield like we had seen in Madrid and all had body armor on. They weren’t necessarily doing anything, but monitoring the streets. I guess this is common and just it’s really not a good idea to be out late in Athens.

We leave tomorrow at 7am for our ferry which will take us out to the Greek island of Santorini which I’ve heard is supposed to be beautiful. I’m looking forward to it, and the beach. It should be a good last two days of relaxation before we head to Strasbourg and start our study abroad. Hope the Mavs win tonight, or should I say at 5:30 tomorrow morning (for me) when they play. Update everyone again tomorrow.

Jonathan