Sorry it took me so long to start chronicling the awesomeness that was spring break. I went back to school on Monday and made a terrible discovery: after three months of virtual vacation, my professors actually want me to think again. It sent my brain into overload, and I’m just now recovering enough to be able to blog.
Anyway, on to more exciting things– like Athens, the site of our spring break kickoff. We went as part of a school-sponsored trip, along with the other 90-something Americans in our program. The big difference was when they went back home to have another week of class before their spring breaks, we went to Italy. This had the unfortunate consequence of us missing a week of classes, but that was outweighed by the fact that we were in ITALY. Anyway, back to Greece.
We arrived in Athens on Friday, April 11. After dumping our stuff at our hotel and taking power naps, we all met up again and headed out to a taverna as a group, which was a real trip for the three or so tables of real Athenians that ended up there with us that night– they got quite the show. Imagine ninety young Americans, live traditional Greek music, and unlimited wine all night. Hilarity ensued– I’ll leave it at that.
The next morning, we headed out on a bus tour. We saw the Panathinakio Stadium, where the first modern Olympics were held in 1859, among other, less awesome things (like lots of Athenian police officers, since we got rerouted around most of the other awesome stuff because of “security issues”). We eventually ended up at the Acropolis. After climbing a bunch of stairs (and having to pass like eighty buses worth of elderly tourists– a recurring theme for the whole spring break), we made it to the actual ruins. The Acropolis literally means “high city”– hence us having to climb all of those stairs. Back in the day, the Acropolis was the place to be if you wanted to worship the Greek gods. It consisted of several temples, of which two major ones still remain: the Erechtheum and the Parthenon.
It was totally worth the stairs. Everyone has seen pictures of the Parthenon, but seeing it in person was so much cooler. And, even though I had never heard of the Erechtheum, it was really cool too. Plus, we had a really informative guide to put the sites into perspective for us. She gave us some time to roam the site, and after checking out the info on the signs by the Parthenon, I headed over to the other site that wasn’t on the tour: the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill. It was on Mars Hill that the Apostle Paul spoke to the Athenians. Standing within like six feet of where the Apostle Paul stood= priceless.
After our morning of classical Greek history, we headed to lunch, then over to a flea market, and then back to the hotel for another nap. That night, a small group of us went out for Korean food. I am a total convert– it was the best Asain food I’ve had since I started this trip. International food is the one thing that Thessaloniki is really bad at, so eating something other than Greek food was awesome. Plus, we made friends with a random Canadian guy who was living in Austria, and he joined us, so we got to hear awesome stories about skiing (awesome enough to make me never want to ski, ever).
The next morning, we started our day at the changing of the guard at the Parliament building. They have the ceremony every day, but on Sundays it’s huge– something like a hundred guards in traditional Greek costume (complete with shoes with little fuzzy balls on the toes and man-skirts), and toting large guns. We randomly ran into our new Canadian friend too, and he joined us for the Archaeological Museum, which was cool (but would have been cooler had I not gotten lost in the garden trying to find the bathroom).
After the museum, they loaded us onto the buses and trucked us out to a suburb, where we had lunch and said goodbye to the rest of the group. It really started to feel like spring break when the group left and it was just the four of us (plus one more person who had the bright idea to skip a week of class). In the next post, I’ll introduce you to my traveling companions , and finish up our last night in Greece (it’s too big to be part of this post– ooh, cliffhanger!) and move on to Italy. But now, I have to go write something else– my philosophy paper. What’s homework again?
