Action-Packed Athens

 This is what our sleepover looked like last night:

One Grecian urn.

Two Grecian urn.

We had a toga party in Athens and watched a youtube clip of Hercules! I know you're jealous.

Today we spent a lot of time in the acropolis museum, where we saw statues of Hercules. The museum is built on top of ancient ruins. Ruins are exposed in random places in the city...it's so cool!

Acropolis

After spending about 3 hours in the acropolis museum, we went to see the real thing! The acropolis is just a big plateau-esque area where ancient structures are located. There are huge walls surrounding the Acropolis, some said that the walls were built by cyclopses because they are so big. Throughout history, the acropolis has been used for several things: marriages, living, worshiping, drama, etc. I couldn't even keep track of the history because so much has happened there!

The first building we ran into was this huge theater. It looked as if it was being prepared for a performance tonight! There were stone-colored cushions on the seats, and the orchestra chairs were in place.

This is from another building on the Acropolis:

This is the theater of Dionysis! I am so happy I got to see it. It was the first stage to host the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes. They are the people who invented comic and tragic drama. And, according to my knowledge, this theater was significant in the history of dance as well. Dance went from being ceremonial and ritualistic, to being performance-driven. So basically I have a job because of this theater!

 

Parthenon
We made it to the Parthenon (which is in the Acropolis). It is in the process of reconstruction, so artists were walking on it, working on restorations.

Pieces of stone waiting to be puzzled back into the building.

 

Beautiful, right?

Roman Agora

Of course Bren wanted to see the agora that was built when Rome was in charge, so we went to see it. Everything was within walking distance from our hostel so it was really close.

Ancient Agora
Then we went to see the Ancient Greek agora. It was cool to just walk around the city and see things from every century since 500 BC. That was basically all we did today.

This is right outside the ancient agora. I love it, but it's sad that someone tagged it with graffiti.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus
This attraction closes at 3 PM! Who does that? We arrived around 6 PM today, so now we are planning on stopping by tomorrow on our way out of town. But even if we don't see it up close, it's beautiful from outside the fence.

National Gardens
After taking a power nap, Brenna and I walked through the national gardens. There is a mini zoo in there!

Do birds kiss? Because I'm pretty sure that's what was happening here.

This one walked right up to us. Sorry sir, but we have no food for you!

Peacocks are so in right now.

...so are Greek children with adorable curly hair.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
We walked by here on the way to dinner, just in time to see part of the changing of the guards!

Night Life
After eating at the same place yesterday (because it was so good), and turning down a date with our waiter (I may or may not be stretching the truth), we walked around looking for gelato. Just a couple of kittens, out for a night on the town! It took us a while to find some, but that's ok because we enjoyed wandering the streets of Athens, singing Taylor Swift songs. We finally found some and ate our last serving of gelato for a long time! We saw the acropolis lit up at night as we enjoyed our delicious frozen treat. Now we are safe at the hostel, ready for a long day of travel tomorrow. Actually we're not ready yet. We have tons of packing and showering and partying to do.

For all you devoted readers out there, I will have one more post in a couple days. So look for it if you're into reflective sort of things.

Loch Sloy!

It's Greek to Me

I decided to go to Greece on a whim, and it has been on the back-burner of my mind ever since. As it approached, I became more and more nervous about my decision to go there. I was hoping that Brenna would be ok with it, and I was hoping that both of us would like it. Thankfully, Brenna and I are having a blast! I can't even count how many times we have turned to each other to say "My life rocks!"

Santorini Islands
As soon as we stepped off the plane, we saw a new alphabet. But fortunately, a familiar alphabet is right underneath all the Greek pretty much everywhere we go!

Hotel
This place is so cute! We had a room to ourselves, a deck, and plenty of towels (which is a luxury for sure). The receptionists drove us to and from the airport. It has been so nice to not worry about transportation!

The View
Bren and I were just walking around town when we first looked over the cliff. It took us by surprise because it came out of nowhere, and it was so beautiful that we just couldn't help but smile! We stayed there for a while because we enjoyed the view so much.

If you are skilled at Where's Waldo, you can spot about 10 islands at one time.

The City

We visited this church. Most families on the island are mixed between Catholic and Greek Orthodox, and Catholics are a minority.

Tour of Santorini
Santorini is an Area which includes 5 different islands. They suffered a bad earthquake in 1956, and everything was rebuilt. We went on a tour of the islands! I think our guide was a little dramatic, but he said that everything basically exists for the tourists. 15% of the original city remains, but it's all in museums now. So everything, both old and new, is there for the tourists. Brenna and I are really stimulating the economy in Greece. That's our contribution to the world!

We started off hiking on a volcano.

Then we swam to some hot pots. They weren't very hot but it was still fun!

Then we went to another island for lunch and napping on a roof.

We finished up the day in Oia, where Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed! This is what we did there:

Baklava, a Greek Dessert. Neither of us liked it.

Brenna just spent a month in Italy, and she STILL wants spaghetti!

I opted for a Greek Salad. It tasted better than it looks!

We found the cutest bookstore in the world!

Moving On

Santorini was beautiful and we miss it already, but today we came to Athens!

Our new hostel. We miss our old one, but we can't complain because we have the room to ourselves!

My first time seeing an orange tree.

 

Stephan told me to try Risotto in Italy and I never did, so I ordered it in Athens and it was amazing!

Brenna went for pancakes.

I love how churches are everywhere in Europe! This is the second one I've seen in the middle of a shopping center. I also saw a chapel in a train station. Catholic churches feel different than LDS churches for me, but they still bring peace to lots of people and I respect that a lot.

There are stray dogs and cats everywhere. The dogs are huge and the cats are skinny. Go figure. Brenna is LOVING it!

Tomorrow will be packed with seeing ancient, famous stuff. We are so excited!

Antio and Loch Sloy!