On Sunday, June 8th, we (a group consisting of six, five girls and one guy) flew into Athens. By the time we found our hostel, it was pretty late. We dropped off our stuff and went in search of a place to eat, and found a restaurant where the waitress only spoke Greek and the menus were only in Greek. That was kind of tough for a vegetarian. I ended up getting a Greek salad, which was delicious. Then we went back to our not-so-great hostel to sleep. The next day we set out to explore the city. It was rough at first because we had no idea where to go. But eventually, we found this train/trolley thing that did a tour around some of the major sites, so we went on that. We stopped at the Acropolis and hiked up a hill to see all the ruins, including some awesome temples, the Parthenon, and the Theatre of Dionysus. The view of the city from there was gorgeous. Much better than from the ground, because Athens is actually quite a dirty city. I thought it was weird that they were doing some construction on the ruins. Aren't you supposed to leave them as they are? That kind of took some of the excitement out of it, sadly. After that we went to the Archaeological Museum, where there were lots of artifacts from ancient Greek times. My favorite rooms were the statue rooms. There were hundreds of ancient statues of gods and people of various classes that were found all over the place! Most of them had parts missing, like a nose or something.
That night we took an overnight ferry to Ios, where we spent three days. It was great, because we would lay on the beach all day, reading or listening to music or napping, and then go out to eat at a restaurant, usually outside and with a view of the ocean except for the night we had dinner in the village. All of the food was delicious. On our final day there, I decided to be adventurous and do something I've never done before. I went scuba diving! It was SO COOL! It was a beginner's dive, and it was myself and an instructor. We went down about 18 feet and were underwater for 45 minutes. I had to call my doctor first and have him email the place saying I could go, since I'm diabetic. That was kind of frustrating, but understandable, and my doctor didn't mind at all, so it all worked out. Anyway, it was definitely one of the best things I have ever done. There were lots of brightly coloured tropical fish. And I held a sea urchin! It was spiky and purple and had suckers on the bottom so it stuck to my hand when I flipped it over. I also saw a sea cucumber, and several of those sea sponge things that people used to use as loofas. They feel really weird.
After Ios, we took a ferry to Santorini for a day. It was beautiful. I've heard it's the most beautiful island in Greece, and I believe it. The views are incredible. After dropping our stuff at our hostel, we took the bus to Thira, a coastal area, where we rode a cable car down a cliff. Then we decided to see how much it would cost to ride a donkey back up it, and it was only 5 euro. I rode a donkey up a cliff! Actually, it was kind of a frightening experience. They brought up a donkey, I hopped on it, and they sent it off. I had no control over this animal. Of course it knew where it was going, but it went at its own speed, and it kept walking right up against the wall and I was afraid I would smash my knee. It also kept switching sides of the path and cutting off the donkey Emma was on. That was pretty funny. There were tourists walking down the cliff, and the donkey just walked right through them and they had to scatter. It was an extremely interesting experience, and I'm very glad I did it. I don't think I would do it again.
After that we took a break, got drinks, and sat outside admiring the view. Then we did some shopping and took the bus back to the area our hostel was in and had dinner. Saturday was a long day of travel, since we had to take a 4 hour ferry back to Athens, then take the metro to the airport, which took a good 2 hours. Then our plane was delayed by an hour, and then we had the 3.5 hour plane ride. We didn't get back to London until 1 AM, and Greece is two hours ahead of that, so it felt later.
Yesterday I just rested, did laundry, did grocery shopping, and did some homework. Today I met several people who just got here for 2nd session, and they all seem cool. I'm now taking British Victorian Lit with a professor from Truman, and it should be a good class. We have reading every night, but not too much, and one page journal entries. I don't think it will be too much work by any means, and it seems like a good group of people in the class.
I can't believe session one went by so quickly!
The Theatre of Dionysus:
Athens:
The beach on Ios:
Just chilling:
Scuba diving:
Santorini:
Yum:
Donkey ride:
1 comment:
Greece is beautiful. It's so blue and white!
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