Day 3 – Athens

Breakfast wasn’t very good in my opinion. We had bread, cereal, and eggs and the eggs didn’t seem completely cooked. Plus, I am on a weird hungry-but-can’t-eat feeling right now. We took a bus to tour the city. We passed a neat statue of Icarus in one of the many squares of Athens. Greek script is getting easier to understand and interpret. Once you get around the few altered glyphs it’s very easy to pronounce. The Acropolis is amazing! I was so exicted to see the Parthenon after writing a 20-page paper on Pericles, the leader of Athens during its construction for Dr. Taber’s Ancient World class. I took so many pictures of it and the other buildings of the Acropolis. It is so neat to see all of Athens from atop the fortress. Then, the group went to a nearby gift shop that we suspect our Athens guide has some sort of agreement with. We then got back on the bus and toured the city again. The Greeks have erected a statue of Harry S. Truman for the Marshall Plan that protected Greece following World War II. I don’t thing we even have a statue of Truman in our national capital. It was very neat for me to see the first modern Olympic stadium. I am a big fan of the Olympics and the Olympic spirit so that was a nice stop to take. We drove by the ex-royal presidential palace and ended back at Syntagma. We then broke off into groups and the Wayne people basically stayed together. We explored the ATMs and Hellenic Post before trying to find some gyros. We looked around as best as we could but we couldn’t find any so we had sandwiches. We tried to get into the National Historical Museum but it was closed when we got there. So we walked down to Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Steph and I were able to figure out the Roman baths before we found the sign. We rock. There’s not much of the temple but it is still fascinating. We then tried to find the Acropolis museum but basically wasted time. We explored the plaka more before heading toward the National Archaeological Museum which was also closed, so we walked back to the hotel. At night, I wanted to head back into the city but I wasn’t sure where to go so I just chilled on the hotel roof. I am excited to return to Athens after the islands.