Spring Break Days 1&2: Athens, Greece

I am currently sitting on a ferry en route to the Greek island of Santorini. This is Day 3 of our spring break, and it has been awesome so far. We spent our first two nights in Athens, Greece, where we were able to do some sightseeing and eat some delicious food.

We departed from my flat in London at 4:45 am on Friday morning. We ate breakfast at a restaurant called Giraffe at Heathrow airport. After breakfast we had a little bit of time to relax before catching our flight to Greece. The flight went really well, and there was barely any turbulence. I slept for a good portion of it, and afterwards I stayed up and talked. The plane ride was much different from any plane I had ever been on, however. This was because many of the passengers were standing up throughout the flight in the back of the cabin with the stewardesses and drinking and socializing. It was very weird because it didn't even feel like I was on a plane. I also witnessed a group of students try to fit as many people as possible into the bathroom. They fit five people, including a stewardess. It was interesting, to say the least.

When we arrived in Greece, they opened the door and let us out into the warmth and sunshine!! We had to take a shuttle bus to the airport, and then we had to deal with customs, baggage claim, etc., which all went smoothly. We took the metro to our hostel, which was located in Monastiraki. The directions to the hostel said that when we exited the metro station we were supposed to turn our backs on Acropolis Hill. I wasn't really sure what this meant, but when we exited the station, the view was phenomenal. I had assumed that Acropolis Hill was a road or restaurant or something, but it was the hill with the actual Acropolis on top. Absolutely breathtaking. We could also see the Parthenon from the market (we were in the Athens flea market) before heading to our hostel.

Our hostel was located in the heart of the town, right next to a custom leather sandal maker (Janae - I think this is where you got your sandals!!!) I'm planning on getting a pair when we return to Athens. The hostel was very nice, and Alex, Christine, Claire, and I were able to get our own room, and Dave was next door to us. We were starving by the time we arrived, so the first thing that we did was get a recommendation for somewhere to eat. We ended up getting sent to a place called Ouzo Marathon (however, it was spelled entirely in Greek) where we had a really delicious dinner. After dinner we headed back to the hostel and went to happy hour at the hostel's rooftop bar. This view was even better than the one from the market, as it was one of the taller buildings in the area. From it, you could see a beautiful mosque atop a hill, the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and Zeus' Temple, not top mention a view of a good portion of the city. All of the monuments were lit up on top of hills, so they were easily visible. It was awesome. When we were up there we made friends with some of the other people at the hostel, including three Canadians, two Germans, two Americans also studying in London (through Wakeforest University), a French guy, a Lithuanian guy, an Australian guy, and an Italian girl. It was really fun talking to them about their experiences traveling and living in all of the different countries, and it was also fascinating how much we had in common (I had an extensive conversation with the Canadians and a few of the Germans about snowboarding). After we finished up at happy hour, Christine and Claire went out to a nightclub, while Alex, Dave, and I decided to explore the city for a little bit before retiring early since we were all exhausted and didn't have a chance to take a nap.

We started Day 2 pretty early, with a 9:00 am wake-up and breakfast at 9:30. We got ready and got out the door by 10:30. This was especially important because the girls had discovered the night before (while talking to some of the people we met) that most of the monuments close at 3:00pm. We decided to start out by going to the Acropolis/Parthenon, which was free because we were students (yay!). It wasn't very crowded since it was off-season, and the view from the top of the Acropolis was awesome. From there you could actually see the entire city. (Side note: Acropolis = mountain that the Parthenon sits on. The Parthenon is the building. I literally just discovered this). So anyways, we spent about two or three hours exploring all of the buildings and hanging out on top of the Acropolis before we hiked back down the mountain to grab lunch.

We ended up getting roped in to lunch by this really nice Greek man who offered us free wine or ouzo since we were Americans. Hooray. (Another side note: Ouzo = a sipping liquor that tastes like black licorice [aka death] that you drink on ice during and before dinner. It turns cloudy when it is cold, so that way you know when it is cold enough to drink.) I had calamari for the first time, and it was really good even though it was a little bit... graphic? I'm not sure if that is the right word, but we'll just say that it was obvious by sight that I was eating squid tentacles. Anyways, after lunch we decided to hike the mountain that led to the monastery because some of our hostel friends told us that it had the best view of Athens. They were right. It is the highest point in the city I think (or at least very close) so you had a 360-degree view. The hike was a little bit more intense than I had expected, but it was enjoyable. Afterwards, we hiked back down, grabbed some baklava at a local gelatto shop, and then headed back to the hostel to nap.

After naptime, we went back up to the hostel bar for happy hour, and the girls decided to go out again, but Alex, Dave, and I decided to just get something to eat and go to bed early since we had to be up at 4:30 am to catch the metro to the ferry.