Cheers to the Weekend

The weekends are my favorite part of our trip. Each weekend our professors have something new and exciting for us to do. This past Saturday we woke up unnaturally early at 5:30 a.m. to hike up a close mountain, but it was a great way to start the day. The views of the city never get old, especially at the very top of a mountain where you can see all of Athens. After enjoying the view from the top, someone (and we still can't figure out who) decided that we should make our own path back down the opposite side of the mountain....not our best idea as Honors students. But definitely entertaining, despite the steep hills of unstable rocks, prickly trees and slippery slopes. We made it back down the mountain with only one wound, and it wasn't me this time!

Enjoying the sunrise

Some of us decided to venture into downtown Athens via the Greek way of public transportation which involves getting on and off the right bus, and then transferring to the metro (or subway) and getting off at the correct stop. If you know me, you know this is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately I had some of our group with me to lead the way. The city was so alive, even later at night. Dallas, Nick and I spent a few hours exploring and stumbled upon the Parliament building which looks beautiful when it is lit up at night. I was surprised to see that as we were walking by an exchange of the guards was happening. I really thought that was only a British thing, but we stood and watched as the guards did their procession. We were trying to figure out if the guards were guarding someone's grave at the base of the building so we ventured over to a local and asked the reasoning behind the guards. Her response was simple: a guard from long ago is buried there. No other explanation.

The Parliament Building

Standing next to a traditionally dressed guard.

Heading back to our dorm was almost uneventful. Until we got back to what we thought was the bus stop. We had literally just missed the B5 bus and assumed another one would soon be on the way. So we waited...and waited...and 45 minutes later another bus finally came. Little did we know that the buses stop running at midnight and it was about 11:45 when we finally got on the bus. Then we were dropped off further away from our dorm than we thought, so it was a nice long walk back. It could have been worse though, so hopefully next time we'll be pros at it!

Sunday we got to do something that I never in my life thought I would have the opportunity to do. Visit the Acropolis and the Parthenon. It was so surreal to actually visit such an amazing piece history and architecture. It was full of tourists and it's weird because I was kind of annoyed with all the tourists, like get out of the way....like I'm not a tourist myself. Although really, that is the point of our trip. To become culturally immersed in the culture and even though we have only been in Greece for a little over a week, I already feel like we aren't tourists anymore. However, I'm sure the Greeks would disagree. This place already feels kinda like home!

  We celebrated our fearless leader's (Dr. Kaplan) birthday at lunchtime and then explored the city some more before heading back to our dorms. And getting somewhat lost...again. To our defense, we knew where we were going but we were all so exhausted that we kinda fell asleep on the bus ride and missed our stop. And then walked the wrong way, before finally straightening ourselves out and arriving home safely. Third time's a charm so hopefully the next travel experience will go smoothly.