Chilling in the Athens Airport

Greetings from Athens everybody! Sorry, we had to pay for WiFi at the hotel, so none of us did it. The trip to Athens was off to a rough start. When I picked up my suitcase at the Santorini airport the fabric of my suitcase tore. So that was great. Then when I lifted my suitcase to be weighed it ripped even more. Well this was concerning. Nothing was falling out of my bag…yet. The flight was very fast (only 25 minutes). I watched all the islands passing underneath the plane and Santorini disappear into the distance.

By the time we got to Athens my bag was even more torn and a pair of my jeans was starting to spill out of the side of my bag. Well that was concerning. Buying a new suitcase was on top of my priorities list (I got a hard case this time). I was actually able to fit everything into my suitcase this time.

Our first day in Athens was short, since it was only a half-day. We had a mini scavenger hunt to find some of the bigger ancient sites of Athens, like the Acropolis, Agora, etc. We also found an awesome local joint to get some food too. We weren’t crazy hungry, but we kind of went a little insane on what we ate. We all had pita gyros; we also had some chips and dip, a tomato and mozzarella, and so much more. We also went there today to grab a bite. We got our food in under a minute; it was awesome!

Today we went to a museum. It was the Archeological Museum, so we also saw some of the frescos that come from Santorini. We also saw some huge statues and even the death mask of Agamemnon. We caught the metro back to Monastiraki, and we got some lunch and I grabbed my suitcase. We then headed up to the Pynx, an ancient assembly for the democracy to learn some things about the Acropolis. We then hiked up to the Acropolis and got to see all the great sites. After the real Acropolis we then went to the Acropolis Museum. This was one of the sweetest museums I have ever been in. There are parts where the floor is glass and you can see an ancient city underneath you. When they dug into the earth for the building they found an ancient city (pretty hard NOT to do when people have been living in this area since about 5000 years before Christ). Well they preserved the city and now you can see the excavations while you are in the museum.

We also got to wander the city a little bit. We found the most awesome yogurt bar called Fresko. You select one of three yogurts (I got the Rich and Creamy Greek Yogurt) and then you can put on topping. These ranged from jam like preserves, to fresh fruits, 4 types of honey, and assortments of nuts. We also did some souvenir shopping in the Monastiraki area. I was finally able to locate the big Greek flag that I wanted.

As I am typing this it is currently 6:17 am in Athens. I won’t be able to post this until the Athens airport when I can get free WiFi. So today will be our 32 hour day, roughly. We will be chasing the sun, and the sun will win. This time in Greece will not be forgotten and I  can’t wait to come back in the future.