May 15:

So here I am, waiting for my first flight out of the country at the Atlanta Airport. I have about a five hour wait so a figure what better time could there be to start a journal? I’m incredibly excited. Forever have I dreamed of visiting Europe and very soon now, I will be there. I tried but I was too excited to sleep last night. Maybe I should try to get some sleep now. Night night.

May 16:

What a day. My first plane touched down early this morning in Milan Italy. Of course I had no idea where I was going or how to get there within the airport. It was quite a chore to find someone who spoke English well enough to help me to my destinations. For a while I just wandered around. I walked through three check points into different terminals and so I had my passport stamped three times. Ha. I finally did find my terminal and plane and when I got to it, I quickly spotted Ruth and Aaron, two classmates also grinding their way to Greece. We talked a bit about our troubles up to this point which, considering all that could have gone wrong, were quite slight. The plane ride to Athens was just a little skip and a hop.

We got there and between the three of us, we were able to make our way out of the Athens Airport and somehow found the correct bus that would take us near our hotel. We ran into Kristin and Sara at our bus and took the 20 or 30 minute ride to our hotel. It didn’t take long for us to realize that we weren’t in Kansas anymore Todo. Everything was Greek to me…a little pun intended.

We got off the bus and followed our directions to the Pan Hotel. Along the way a very odd man thought we looked like we needed a place to stay so he offered us a room at the “best hostel” in Greece. We assured him that we had already made arrangements but that didn’t stop him from chasing us nearly all the way to our hotel yelling “Cheap, cheap, cheap.” Once at the hotel we were welcomed by several other classmates who beat us there. I checked in and dropped off my bag and went back down to the lobby to have my first legal alcoholic beverage (Legal drinking age in Greece is 18). After hanging out in the lobby for a while with the other students, Dr. Chapin, Dr. Bauslaugh, their son Drew and JR strolled in (they traveled together). We all greeted them and talked for a minute. Then they took their stuff to their rooms and came back down to let us know we were about to hike up to the Hill of Muses. Most of us had just gotten there and were very sleep deprived but excitement levels were high. We made the little hike up to the Hill of Muses with JR and Dr. Bauslaugh stopping every so often to explain certain things. The hill was an ancient town meeting location right across from the acropolis so we had a great view of the Parthenon and the rest of Athens which looked as if it went on forever. I kicked myself for not having a camera with me.

We walked back down and then combed the streets of Athens looking for this restaurant that, according to Dr. Chapin and Dr. Bauslaugh, was “right around here somewhere.” They finally found it and we learned that it was one of the oldest restaurants in Athens and it served very traditional Greek meals. We had good wine and then ouzo. Dinner was great and every bit worth the hunt. We walked/stumbled back to our hotel where I decided it was time to turn in having not slept for well over a day now. I walked into my room to find Zach who had not been there before. Apparently he had experienced a very interesting day-o-travel. After having missed most of his flights he ended up in Spain and somehow made it to Greece from there. Go figure though, all of his luggage was in New York. I count my blessings. Well it’s time for some much needed sleep.

The group on the Hill of Muses	A view of Athens from the Hill of Muses

May 17:

Today is a special day… because we’re in Greece. We woke up and headed down to the lobby where a European continental breakfast was set up. After making sure everyone was awake, which is not such an easy task after a day of travel like most of us experienced the day before, we headed up to the Acropolis. We took a little break to climb on Mars Hill where Paul addressed the Athenians. The closer we got to the Acropolis, the more densely populated it became. There was a sea of people that rivaled Disney World in July. Although it was a bit crowded, the hordes of visitors could do little to take away from the beauty and amazement of the site. I left in a state of awe with yet one more thing crossed off my list of things to do.

We then were given a break to go get some lunch before heading off to tour the agora. Zach, Kristin, Sara and I found a nice little restaurant and decided to try our hand. It turned out to be incredibly over priced. Later we were joined by Heather who took the more economical path of a gyro from a vender. She also had with her a bag a fresh cherries which were very good, more so than my 9 euro calamari. All the same, the atmosphere was great. We then worked our way to the ancient agora where we saw the temple of Hephisto and the place where Socrates was executed.

We were then told we should go and buy some food for our hike tomorrow as there would be no place to buy food on the trail. We went to a local convenient store and had a blast buying all sorts of crazy junk food we don’t have at home: Oregano chips, orangeade, etc. I also decided to pick up a bottle of ouzo to take home not realizing that I would see ouzo every place I went for the next two weeks. We then went back to the hotel and got our luggage and carried to the train station and from there we went to the port and finally after the long harsh journey across Athens, we made it to our ferry that we would spend the night on. It was a fun little cruise. I had one drink to many but I’m on vacation… and I’m legal.

The Famous Parthenon	A church in Athens
The Temple of Hephisto in the Ancient Agora	Another Parthenon picture