I am currently in Mykonos... sorry for the lack of blogging!!! Internet is very hard to find and quite expensive here compared to South America! I must say though, I am enjoying the beaches of Mykonos, but that is to come later...
On the first day I arrived, I met up with Brian and Christina. We had a little problem in the first part of the trip because Christina found out that the original 3 day tour that we had organized and planned our whole trip around was CANCELLED! They went from tour place to tour place to try and find a tour because I really wanted to go to Delphi and Brian really wanted to go to Olympia. Christina just thought the tour would be a good way to start in general. Luckily, they both found a tour and we were all set to go. Athens isn't a very exciting city, so the thought of staying there longer than necessary was painful to all of us. The first thing we did after I arrived and we all met up was go on a hunt for the a gyro. Brian had this vision of gyro stands all over Athens. This is not the case. Considering that Athens has become a very modern city, a lot of its antiquity and uniqueness seems to have disappeared. We wandered through the streets for about an hour and found this little gyro stand sort of off the beaten path... only locals were there. That's how you know it's an amazing place! We had our first gyro, which was absolutely delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as enjoyed listening to the locals-- My only wish was that I could understand them! However, I am becoming much better at associating greek letters with their sounds and sounding out words in greek... in their capital letters. I am out of luck when it comes to identifying the lower case letters!
We ended up going back to our hostel to finally check in and then we both went our separate ways. I wanted to see the Acropolis and all of the major sites while I could, since I would only have a day back in Athens when at the end of my trip, and Christina wanted to go see the Acropolis Museum (which ended up being closed!). Wandering through the city on my own was really nice. I got to see the Acropolis, as well as the Agoras and relish on the beauty of the columns, pillars and think about what life would be like in ancient times. However, I really wished there wasn't so much modernity in the middle of it all. A part of me wishes that it was preserved as it was back then, if that makes sense at all. I thought also of the history and its grandeur. What would people who are studying us in the future think of our culture and architecture? It simply fascinates me.
On the first day I arrived, I met up with Brian and Christina. We had a little problem in the first part of the trip because Christina found out that the original 3 day tour that we had organized and planned our whole trip around was CANCELLED! They went from tour place to tour place to try and find a tour because I really wanted to go to Delphi and Brian really wanted to go to Olympia. Christina just thought the tour would be a good way to start in general. Luckily, they both found a tour and we were all set to go. Athens isn't a very exciting city, so the thought of staying there longer than necessary was painful to all of us. The first thing we did after I arrived and we all met up was go on a hunt for the a gyro. Brian had this vision of gyro stands all over Athens. This is not the case. Considering that Athens has become a very modern city, a lot of its antiquity and uniqueness seems to have disappeared. We wandered through the streets for about an hour and found this little gyro stand sort of off the beaten path... only locals were there. That's how you know it's an amazing place! We had our first gyro, which was absolutely delicious! We thoroughly enjoyed it, as well as enjoyed listening to the locals-- My only wish was that I could understand them! However, I am becoming much better at associating greek letters with their sounds and sounding out words in greek... in their capital letters. I am out of luck when it comes to identifying the lower case letters!
We ended up going back to our hostel to finally check in and then we both went our separate ways. I wanted to see the Acropolis and all of the major sites while I could, since I would only have a day back in Athens when at the end of my trip, and Christina wanted to go see the Acropolis Museum (which ended up being closed!). Wandering through the city on my own was really nice. I got to see the Acropolis, as well as the Agoras and relish on the beauty of the columns, pillars and think about what life would be like in ancient times. However, I really wished there wasn't so much modernity in the middle of it all. A part of me wishes that it was preserved as it was back then, if that makes sense at all. I thought also of the history and its grandeur. What would people who are studying us in the future think of our culture and architecture? It simply fascinates me.
As I was self-navigating through the city, I stumbled upon two districts that were classic looking and not modern at all. I fell in love with it! One of them is the Plaka district. I saw little old ladies and old men sitting on their front porch talking in Greek, just as I had envisioned it in my head. Cute little houses, with painted shutters, open cafes, lots of shops, quiet streets. Quite different from the hustle and bustle of the center of town. It was exactly what I needed to do, see and experience. The pace of life seemed to be so different from the other side of town.
After I finished exploring, I ended up meeting back with Christina and Brian. I took them to the Plaka district that I discovered and they fell in love with it as well. The streets were loud and lively. People were out and about, happy, and so were we. We were on search for dinner, and I convinced Brian and Christina to try the souvlaki (I have become the Greek food expert). It was delicious. We noticed the portions were small, but I think it's just an American thing to serve big portions.
We walked back to the rooftop bar at our hostel and stayed up there to watch the lights of the Acropolis. It was absolutely breath-taking. We then went back to get a nice nights rest to get ready for our classical tour.
My impressions of Athens wasn't spectacular until I stumbled upon the Plaka district. Aside from the monuments, there wasn't much to see or do. But then again, I didn't give myself that much time to explore Athens. I think I would really like the Plaka district. But aside from that, Athens is not my town.
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