Greece!

I love Greece.

Kyle has a friend who is doing the same program we are in Thessolaniki, Greece...so since we had a long weekend we decided to take the opportunity to go visit! School got out early on Friday because students were given their grade reports, and school wasn't in session Monday or Tuesday, so we figured this was a perfect weekend to make the farther trip to Greece.

We flew out of Cologne about 5 pm on Friday, had a layover in Munich and got into Athens about 11 pm. The Athens airport isn't really close to anything, so we had to take a 45 minute train to get to the city. The good thing though, was that our hostel was right near a train stop. We got to the hostel, probably around 12 or 1230...it was weird because everyone in our room was already asleep, which we didn't expect since it was like 1230 on a Friday night. There was a little bar right next to the hostel so we went to just get a drink before going to bed. We were sitting outside of this bar, just taking in the fact that we were in Greece, and this big stray dog kept coming up to our table. At first he kept coming empty handed, then he started to come with like huge slabs of raw meat and would just devour the meat and bones right next to us like it was no big deal. He came back with meat like 3 times...we were really confused as to how this dog was getting the meat.

The next morning we took at 5 euro walking tour, that was about 3 hours long. We went and saw all of the historic sites of Athens (pictures on facebook). Our tour guide was from South Carolina, so we got to talk to him some about the states. And I got to talk to him a bit about Kiawah, so that was fun. People on our tour consisted of Americans, Argentinians, Brazilians, and Koreans...so that was kind of cool.

That Saturday was absolutely wonderful in Athens! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was in the mid-60's and super sunny. It was absolutely wonderful! The tour we went on was pretty amazing too...it is just crazy to stand at some of those sites and think about how many different people have stood there and imagine what it was like back in its prime. Especially coming from America, where our historical sites don't even compare with the time and history of these sites. Hearing about all the Ancient Greek Temples and being in Athens really did make me want to watch Hercules...just to compare since I've seen the sites now you know? Plus Hercules is a wonderful movie, I did learn though that Disney left out the part where Hercules kills his wife and kid in a drunken rage one night...bummer.


After the tour, we got our stuff together and were going to go to the National Archaeological Museum but once we got there, we realized it closed at like 3 that afternoon...so we went to a little cafe and witnessed a protest march. What is great about Greece is that they give you free tap water! Unlike Germany, everytime you go to a restaurant or order a drink they will give you free tap water. In Greece, they also bring you some time of snack food like chips or something when you order a drink, and a free dessert most places. I love Greece.

We took a 4.5 hour train to Thessolaniki that night, and met up with Kyle's friend Erin and some of her friends when we got there. It was really nice because we walked around Thessolaniki for awhile before we found a nice place to sit outside, and stayed there until about 5 in the morning. The next day, Erin took us around the city some more and walked up to the old city where we got a great view of Thessolaniki. We found a nice little place for dinner that night and were there for hours just talking and hanging out, which was nice. Plus the very attractive waiter was nice to look at, and he brought us a free liter of wine.

Erin had school the next day, so Kyle and I just walked around for a little while before she came home. We went to dinner again Monday night with Erin's friends and had some amazing food. The Thessolaniki trip was great because we were able to see more of Greek daily life instead of just touristy stuff. So that was a big contrast between our time in Athens and in Thessolaniki. We just hung out for a few hours Monday night at dinner then Kyle and I had to get a cab back to the train station to catch our night train back to Athens.

The place where we stayed in the train was TINY! But it ended up not being that bad of a trip...the beds were more comfortable than I gave them credit for (which is saying too much). I found it fairly easy to sleep on that train. It took about 6.5 hours to get back to Athens, and once we did we hung out in a cafe in the train station for a couple of hours since it was 6 am. We had seen that the Archaeological Museum was open at 8:30 so we decided that we would go there for a little bit before heading back to the airport. We picked a great day to come back to Athens because all of the public transit was on strike, so the traffic was crazy and we had to pay to get a cab everywhere. We got a cab to take us to the Museum and he was nice and said he would pick us back up at 10 to take us to the airport. What sucks is that it was like 60 euros to get to the airport since it was so far away...but oh well. Like I said, not a great day for us for public transit to be on strike.

The Museum was really interesting, again just being the presence of all that history is just crazy to me. The Museum also had an Egypt Exhibit, which I definitely found myself having a new appreciation for after studying that with my students last semester during practicum. I would have liked to have a little longer in the Museum, but our cab driver kept his word and picked us up at 10 to go to the airport.

All in all, it was a great trip and I am elated that I got to experience it. One of Erin's friends in Thessolaniki, Stephanie, lives there all the time and said that we should definitely come back during the summer and go to the islands...I am planning on following her directions. I would love to go to the islands and see the beaches and typical white buildings and blue roofs!