Greece: Athens
After the most hectic week of midterms I have ever had I found myself on a bus Friday morning en route to Frankfurt, Germany where I would hop a plane to Greece. Even though we had an extremely easy path between us and our plane, we of course managed to make it difficult for ourselves. Once we were dropped off outside the airport by the Lufthansa bus we had to figure out where to check in in one of the largest airports I’ve ever been in. So we hopped on the SkyTram to get to the different terminal we THOUGHT we needed to go to but once we were there we realized that it was wrong so we went back one terminal to our original spot to discover that was also wrong then finally made it to the last terminal. However once we stepped off the tram we noticed that the the people in the other tram car had gotten off on the other side, a side that didn’t open up to us…we thought this was odd but we figured, how can you go wrong? Well it was wrong…very strangely, oddly wrong…there was no one on our side of the tram stop except one woman standing in front of one security x-ray with 2 guards. I cautiously walked up to the woman and said, “Hi…we’re lost.” She asked for our itineraries, saw that they had flight numbers on it and ushered us through. So the four of us went through to the security barrier and the 2 guards who took our bags through the x-ray, we went through the metal detectors and on the other side saw signs for “gates.” I said to the others, “guys…please tell me that wasn’t security. Why do the signs say gates? We don’t want gates, we want check-in tables…” We all looked at each other, shrugged and figured it would all work out. We found a door that lead to these mysterious gates, walked down 2 flights of steps where we saw no one, and opened up a door into the middle of the Lufthansa terminal. I have no idea how we did it but we did not have any airplane tickets, we were armed with our carry-on bags and nothing else. How was it possible that we entered the Frankfurt terminal with no tickets and through a security with 2 guards? No idea. However, I think only me and my traveling crew could do that.
After the security “incident” we had a boring hour or so in the airport and a relatively uneventful flight. However, I have to give some credit to Lufthansa, they served us VEGETARIAN food on our flight, they don’t charge for carrying bags on a plane, and they apparently speak many many languages on the airplane just in case we don’t speak German. What an airline!
When we got to the airport in Athens we found the bus to the the city center and had to stand the whole hour and 1/2 it took to get there because it was so crowded. We were dropped off at the city center to discover that it was not the train station as we had thought so we had to get on the metro to find our hostel. The Hotel Neo Olympos was located just a few blocks from the train station right where it said it would be on their website. Since I was the one put in charge of picking out the hostel for Athens, I was a little nervous about what the hotel would be like. As we checked in, I got a little nervous when the man said, “Oh I’m sorry but we don’t have a four-person room available right now,” But I was happy to hear when he followed it up with, “So I’m going to put you in two double rooms instead.” Already we were getting a sweeter deal, the same price for 2 doubles instead of a quad! When we got up into our rooms we found extremely comfy beds, extra blankets (my favorite) and a little walk out balcony. It was perfect! I got nothing but compliments on my find for only $12 a night a person. Yes, I know that sounds cheap but I promise there were working toilets, showers, and free internet (a rare find in Europe, let me tell you…) We settled in, unpacked a little, had a delicious and inexpensive dinner and went to bed.
The next morning we got up bright and early to set out to find the bus to Sounion so we could see the Temple of Poseidon. After many awkward question asking to various travel agencies we found in town, we had several different opinions on where to go to catch the bus. So we stood at where we thought the bus was going to come for about 15 minutes and miraculously it did! We then embarked on the most beautiful drive down the country side to the temple. On the bus we met a couple from Egypt that were traveling with their two children, a girl about 6 or 7 years old and a son that was about 2. The drive down was one beautiful scene after another of the ocean. Once we got there we got out to take pictures that were incredible but extremely fake looking. I swear we were actually there but the pictures are so amazing that it seems fake.
Below is the little Egyptian boy we met on the bus…just before this picture, his father took a family portrait of his wife, daughter, and son in my arms with the rest of us girls. We don’t really know why they wanted a picture with us but the wife turned to me and held out her son and said, “Would you like to hold him?” and without me really saying yes or no, I found myself holding him. On the ride home the little boy decided he wanted me to be his new mommy. He would try to walk down the aisle of the bus so he could get to me and then I’d pick him up and make faces at him which made his day. His dad made sure to capture that on video camera…so we are permanently in their lives now!
After the trip we wandered around the city to see the sites and found that that was much easier to find ruins than we thought! There are actually ruins all over the place in Athens…go figure. We’d turn a corner and BAM ran into ruins. They were in the sidewalk, in the metro, in parks, everywhere! It’s incredible.
After wandering and lunch we headed to the 2004 Olympic Stadium which was absolutely incredible to look at! It had some pretty insane architecture (in a good way, not the Gaudi way) and we had a fun time wandering around trying to see what we could see. I even got to see the pool were Michael Phelps once swam! That was a highlight for me…I took a couple pictures of it. It was pretty cool being in my second Olympic Park. It made for an interesting comparison to Barcelona. The two parks definitely have very different feels.
The next day we headed to the Acropolis for a day of sightseeing within the city. To our wonderful discovery, apparently museums and and archaeological sites are free on Sundays! How exciting is that?! We didn’t even plan it! So we headed off to a FREE day at the Acropolis where we would normally have had to pay 12 Euros or so. It was another spectacular day with only a few clouds in the sky. We took lots of pictures but also spent a fair amount of time just basking in the sunlight. (This caused me to have a burn later on that day, but who really cares…) Kayla, one of the girls on my trip, has had a life-long dream of going to Greece since 6th grade so for her to see the Acropolis in person was an incredible moment for her. I’m so happy that I got to be there with her when she saw it. She was spitting out facts left and right about Greece and the Acropolis as we walked through. She was so funny to be with. She loved it. We all did for that matter. It was a beautiful day!
Lots of free ruins around the city to see…
Monday morning we headed to Delphi to see the ruins there. It was kind of a hectic drive along the mountainside but we got to see a small ski town in Greece (I know, strange) and see more of the terrain and countryside. When we got to the site, we were worried it was going to close so we had to basically run through the town to get to the site so we could try to power walk through as much of it as we could. All of the brochures and pictures we looked at showed Delphi as this beautiful flat place where we could see ruins and have a wonderful day. Well do not be deceived by the pictures. Delphi is on the side of a mountain. Sacred Way, the path you follow up to the stadium is like a 45 degree angle. When you get to the stadium where people supposedly held some Olympic games, all you can think to yourself is, they must have been carried up by slaves because if you walked all the way up there, you’re not running any races anytime soon. It was insane….then when you’re all done at that site and you walk back down the hill and you think you’re done, NO! There’s about 4 more sites to see. We only saw 3/4 but it was pretty intense. You had to walk another half mile down the road to see the other places. Our walk down the road involved us encountering a giant pig that looked like it could probably sit on us, squash us, and eat us and no one would ever know. It was HUGE and we were very worried about angering it and making it come chase us. Delphi was very beautiful, also miraculously free apparently that Monday, and it was nice break from the Athens city life.
So this was my first few days of the trip in Athens. We saw a ton of ruins, which is what you’re supposed to do in Athens, right? As a city, it didn’t do much for any of us. I had been forewarned by William that he didn’t like the city while he was there so I knew going into it that I might not like it. It’s kind of a dirty place and it’s really unlike most of the other cities in Europe. I guess I have become accustomed to most European cities where there are all these old historic buildings with lots of charm and beautifulness. It Athens…I mean you have ruins, which you can’t really get much older than that, but that’s about it for old stuff. All the buildings look like they were built in the last 50 years, at least after WWII, probably later. They are all kind of ugly. However, after becoming a member of a sorority, I have learned the Greek alphabet. So I had a fun time going around trying to read the signs with the Greek letters. Kayla had about 5 pages of printed Greek words so we would try and figure out what the signs said. At night we also made an interesting discovery. While we would walk around to find places to eat for dinner, we started noticing that there were never any women in the streets. There were hardly any women at restaurants except for tourists. It is probably different during the summer months when there are more people in the city, but again they would be tourists. It was strange that there was never really any women walking around. We were never in danger, don’t worry, but we didn’t spend much time outside at night in Athens. It was always dinner then bed!
So there you have Athens! It was an interesting experience, that is for sure. The Acropolis and and all the ruins in the city were incredible to finally see. It’s insane to think about how old they are…it makes you feel kind of insignificant in terms of your place in history. But don’t worry, there’s lots more Greece to come!
