Greece

The week before last I went to Greece twice! I first went to Kos and Rhodes with another IES student, who had posted that Ryanair had a 10 euro ticket to Kos and Rhodes. This offer was too good to pass up, so there I ended up at the airport, at 4:30 AM, on my way to Kos. When we got there, it was a little deserted as tourist season hadn't started yet. Our plan of lying on the beach all day was ruined by the fact that it was cold and rainy. However, we did eat delicious Greek food.

Kos - a little rainy, but still pretty 

A variety of Greek food

Baclava, yum!

The next day we took a ferry, which we barely caught because of the horrible directions given to us by the ferry company. The ferry was super nice, like a cruise ship. We landed in Rhodes, checked into our super nice hotel on the beachfront, and walked around the Old Town. Since Rhodes was a medieval town, there is a castle and everything.

We then headed on a bus to Lindos, which is the typical Greek island town that everyone thinks of, with the white-washed buildings on a hill next to the sea. 

Lindos! 

Sadly, we could not spend more time in Rhodes, which was so nice compared to Kos. After going to school in Rome for a couple of days, I headed back to Greece with my friend, Kassie, this time to Athens.

Athens was amazing! I had heard that Athens wasn't very nice and people generally don't have good things to say about it. The area that we stayed in, near the Acropolis, was really nice. We saw a few temples from afar, the Palace Gardens, and some strangely dressed guards and then went to go eat more Greek food.

In front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

The next day we got up early and went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It took over 600 years to build the temple!

Temple of Olympian Zeus

We went to a Greek yogurt bar and I had the traditional Greek yogurt with black cherry, which was absolutely delicious. Next we climbed up to the Acropolis. There was a lot of climbing on this trip. We saw the Theater of Dionysius and the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. It is amazing to think that in the Theater of Dionysius, you could see plays by the great Greek dramatists, like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander, performed for the first time.

Theater of Dionysus

Odeon of Herodes Atticus

We finally reached the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. The Parthenon had a lot of scaffolding and cranes around it, but was still magnificent. This one building has so much history. We learned that there were previous Parthenons built before the current one and that the Parthenon has been used as a church and a mosque. It was blown up by a Turkish bomb, which is why the roof and a lot of the sides are missing.

The Parthenon! 

The Erecthion

The view from the Acropolis. You can see the Temple of Hephaestus

We then took a bus a couple of hours down the coast to the Temple of Poseidon, which is on a cliff by the sea. It was absolutely beautiful and so fitting for Poseidon.

The Temple of Poseidon on the cliff by the sea. So beautiful!

On arrival back in Athens, we went to the Acropolis museum to see the artifacts and statues from the Acropolis. The museum was very informative and well laid out. I wish that the British Museum would give the Parthenon marbles that Lord Elgin stole back to this museum because they would fit perfectly. But I understand that the issue is more complicated than that.

The Caryatids from the Erecthion. The one on the left has been cleaned.

The next day we got more Greek yogurt and went on a walking tour. It was supposed to take three hours, but it ended up being five hours long. We were a little worn out by the end of it. It was good, though, for learning about Athens as a whole and not just the ancient part. We went to the Parliament building, saw where the riots took place, and also saw the ancient sites. Near Parliament, there were men who would grab your hand and place bird seed in it so the pigeons would attack. They then expected payment. Pigeons are scary.

We then headed to the Panathenic Stadium, which was used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. It was reconstructed from the remains of the ancient Greek stadium and made of Pentellic marble.  That was really cool! We climbed up to the top of the stadium, ran on the track, walked back through the passageway that the athletes used to walk through on their way to the stadium from the changing rooms, saw a room full of the Olympic torches from previous games, and stood on the medal podium.

The view of the Acropolis from the stadium 

That evening, we took the funicular up Mount Lycabettus, the highest point in Athens. The view was spectacular.

The next day we got up early yet again to go to the National Archaelogical Museum, which had a lot to see. One of the highlights was the exhibit on an ancient shipwreck where they found a lot of artifacts.

We also saw the Temple of Hephaestus, which is the best preserved temple in Athens. It gives you a good idea of what temples really looked like.

Greece was so different from Italy. I actually preferred the ancient sites in Athens to the ancient sites in Rome. In Rome, the Colosseum and Forum are next to a busy road and are so congested. I liked that they separated the sites in Athens with a nice park area. I also like that almost all of the sites and museums are free for students in Athens. That was really nice! The coast of Greece was so beautiful as well. It was interesting to also see the effects of the economic crisis. There are a lot of buildings that have been stopped mid-construction because of the economy. I would love to return to Greece again and spend more time travelling to different cities.