Yeeasas and Hello!

Though it took us about 24 hours of planes, trains, and buses to get here, the past two and a half days in Athens have been surreal. In the past 48 hours, I have seen 5,000 year old artifacts, stood on the grounds of the Ekklessia, the birthplace of democracy, and stood on the hill of the Areopagus, where Paul led his first Athenian convert to Christ!
When we arrived in Athens Friday night, we took a bus tour of the city and had our first authentic Greek meal. We are lucky to have arrived on the holiday of Epiphany because we got a glimpse of the city still covered in Christmas decorations. As soon as we started walking the streets to our restaurant, we encountered ancient landmarks such as Hadrian's Arch. It is hard to grasp just how old artifacts like that are. It seems to unreal.
The next morning we headed out with our guide, Maria and began to get oriented to the city. We traveled to the Pynx, which is where the ekklessia, or democratic assembly met in the open air. From there, we got a perfect view of the acropolis towering on an adjacent hill. Next, we got a closer view of the acropolis from atop the Areopagus (aka Mars Hill). The Areopagus, or hill of Ares, is the sight of the Athenian Supreme Court that stood from around the 15th cen BC to the 4th cen. A.D. This hill was especially interesting to me because it is the site where Paul delivered his sermon about the unknown god, found in Acts 17. Following this explanation of the gospel to the Areopagites, Dionysius, became Paul's first Greek convert. Though a large Christian community did not develop during Paul's time in Athens, his effort did eventually lead to a Christian community. In fact, today Greece is 99% Greek Orthodox Christian and 1% Roman Catholic. I got to teach our group about the Areopagus, so that was fun.
  Later, we visited the acropolis museum, which had beautiful reconstructions of the Parthenon friezes as well as innumerable Archaic and Classical art and sculptures. After taking a rest from a long day of walking we got a second wind and headed back out for round 2. We ate at Dr. Todd's favorite restaurant, Psaris, which was definitely the best Greek food I've had yet. It was in a cozy allyway with a charming atmosphere. The menu was a series of appetizer type dishes including Greek salad, saganaki (fried cheese), Spinacopita (spinach pie), Greek sausage, tzaziki (yogurt sauce), and my favorite Mouzika ( a lamb lasagna type pastry). After dinner we decided to hunt down the oldest coffee shop in Athens that our guide had pointed out to us on our first bus tour. Unfortunately we did not know its name or where it was, but knowing the general direction, we set out to find it. After being laughed at when we asked for directions and taking the same subway route multiple times, we found it 2 hours later! It was about 12:30 by this point, but the place was hoppin! Greeks eat and stay out much later than Americans. With mission accomplished, we headed back to the hotel and passed out.
Today we woke up to rain, but we didn't let it stop us. We trecked out to see the kalameikos, the 5th century pottery factory as well as the Royal Stoa (part of the agora-town center), where Socrates was sworn in as President. From there we subwayed to the government center of town. Behind one of the government buildings we saw the excavation of the Lyceum, the gymnasium where Aristotle taught. After that we spent several hours in the Museum of Cyclidic art, which held 5,000 yr old art from the Cyclides, Greek islands. When our museum legs were worn out, we went searching for a "mythical crepery" that Dr. Todd also recommended, and we were in for a treat! After splitting several crepes such as Mexican, ham and cheese, nutella and strawberry, and apple pie, we built up enough energy to climb to highest point in Athens, the Lycabettus.
     We went in search of the cable car to take us to the top, with ANOTHER Athenian dog who decided to become our guard dog (their really fond of tourists). When we gave up on the cable car, he followed us all the way to the top of the cactus-lined path to see the breath-taking view of Athens, the Acropolis, the surrounding Mts. and the Mediterranean in the distance. It was stunning. After a million group pictures and a visit to the Byzantine chapel at the top we rode the cable car down. It was a wonderful day besides catching someone read-handed who sneaked up behind me and was stealing my purse! Thankfully when I gave him an infuriated look he dropped it and ran. Anyway, tomorrow we are taking a ferry to a small island off the coast called Aegina. Got to get up early so I better go for now.
Kalineechta! Good Night!

Opah!

Well, when I left the continent that I fell in love with last fall, I didn't think I would have the privilege of visiting her again for many years. I would have never guessed that only a year later I would have the opportunity to study abroad again! I needed one more history credit to graduate and the only way I could make it fit into my school schedule was to take Greek history over Jan-term, IN GREECE!! I have always wanted to visit Greece and am so excited! I will be traveling with a group of about 25 students and adults from Samford from January 5th-24th. I hope to post lots of pictures and adventures so that you all can enjoy it as well! Wish me luck :)


Here's my itinerary:
Jan 5th: Leave ATL 6:00
Jan 6th: arrive Frankfurt 9 am, fly 1:30-5:00-Land in Athens!
Jan 7th-10th: Tour Athens
Jan 11th: Meteora- "hanging monasteries"
Jan 12th: Delphi
Jan 13th: Olympia
Jan 14th-16th: Poulithra
Jan 17th: Nauplion, Mycenae, and Tyrins
Jan 18th: Epidaurus, Corinth, and Acrocorinth
Jan 19th: Heraklion, Crete, 
Jan 20: Crete
Jan 22: Marathon
Jan 23: Athens
Jan 24th: Fly Home!