we arrived to athens and immediately had plates piled with food sitting in front of us (compliments to lauren's godmother, Dolly) as we exchanged our traveling adventures with lauren, maddi, and brooke. we also discussed how wild it was to be in athens together, on top of having visited Edinburgh, Scotland and Oxford, England together. not many friends can say they've traveled to different countries together! we sure are special :) afterwards we headed to town and got to see the changing of the guards. their routine is pretty funny--a bunch of kicks and wiggling of the toes which have little pompoms on them. but the guys are super serious about the act! i could never do it, i think i would end up laughing hysterically. we found out that all boys must serve in the military at some point in their life, and if you're tall enough, you're considered for employment as a guard (they are really tall!). after being entertained by their routine, we climbed the top of one of athens' mountains where we had a spectacular night view of the cityscape. it was beautiful with all the lights glittering from every possible direction. we were even higher than the Acropolis! we then munched on some traditional greek cuisine (yes ate once again which was soon to become our hobby) at a lovely little restaurant on the mountaintop. we then headed to the apartment that lauren's cousin graciously offered us for the next several days. and would it surprise you to say that on our way back we stopped for delicious crepes? as for the apartment, it was awesome. we had the top floor of the complex with a huge balcony and yet another beautiful view of the city. (we would soon find out that the balcony was the perfect place for an afternoon nap).
the next day we went to the market and walked around the little streets of athens where we saw tons of clothes, jewelry, purses, and little greek trinkets waiting to be bartered for. while wandering about, we ran into 2 girls, Jobi & Murphy, who we've become really close friends with while at uni in Lancaster. you never know who you'll run into while traveling! that night we got all dolled up and headed to a club with lauren's cousins. it was a great time until i ended up having to leave due to all the cigarette smoke. even though there are 'no smoking' signs, the greeks don't abide by the rules! apparently, the entire ceiling opened up later in the night which would have been a great star gazing atmosphere. perhaps the next time i'm in athens i'll get to witness it ;)
our last full day in athens we visited the Parthenon along with the Acropolis Museum. it's amazing how evidence of history long, long ago still exists and is standing! that night was Greek Easter and we watched fireworks being set off nearby the church. A procession of people holding candles soon flowed out of the service. The flame is specially flown all the way from Jerusalem, from the Holy Fire, and is distributed to all of the people's candles. It is said that Christianity originated in Greece, which makes sense as to why the Holy Fire would be flown to all of its cities and Greek Orthodox churches. we ended the evening with a traditional greek easter game. everyone holds a hardboiled egg (fact: all of the easter eggs are dyed red in greece) and one person takes their egg and taps it on top of the egg to their left. whoever has the egg that doesn't crack is the 'winner' and goes on to the next person to battle out the eggs. in the end everyone just eats the eggs though.
the following morning, it was time to say our farewells and back to lancaster we went.
out of our entire trip, this is what i'd have to say:
1. the beatles story museum in liverpool, england was my favorite museum i've been to while over here in the UK.
2. paris was by far the most beautiful city. hopefully i can visit there again at some point in my life.
3. seville was my favorite spanish city that we went to--it definitely has the spanish charm to it.
3. athens has the best food, and i now crave it.
4. don't get excited to have your passport stamped... i ended up with only one stamp, and that was when i left Athens.
5. ryanair definitely has the worst landings..i prefer easyjet :)
over and out!
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