It's All Greek to Me! (Spring Break in Greece Week 8)

In a previous post, I mentioned that I was sitting in the middle of the Rome airport during a layover in between Madrid and Athens.  Well, that happened after traveling from Segovia to Madrid by bus, through the Madrid metro to the stop under the airport, through the airport to our exit gate, and from there to the Rome airport for the night.  After passing the night watching Easy A and Mulan on a friend’s laptop, sleeping a total of zero hours, and laughing incessantly at nothing, we boarded a quick 1.5 hour flight to Athens from Rome the next morning.  We landed in the Athens airport, nabbed a van taxi for all eight of us in the group, traveled through most of Athens for an hour, and arrived at our hotel pretty much in the heart of the city.  Essentially, the hotel was about a half an hour walk from the main business and government sector, so it was close to everything we wanted to see in the heart of Athens!

After such a long night in the airport with very little sleep, the first thing everyone was thinking about at this point in the game was when we were going to hit the hay for the night.  After all, we were all checked in and our beds were within reach.  But, since we had a few hours left, we decided that it would be a good idea to explore the city on foot a bit.  So, that’s just what we did.  We didn’t really have a plan, except that we wanted to try and find Mount Lycabettus, one of the taller hills in the city, by the time the sun set for the night.  It is in the center of the city, and it supposedly is supposed to have one of the best views of all of Athens.  It also is known for being a spectacular spot for star-gazing.  After traveling for about 45 minutes to hunt for the hill, we eventually came across it, climbed and climbed and climbed for about another half an hour, and eventually, we made it! And that's why I titled this post the way I did. ;)

Everything they said about this place was true.  The views were spectacular, the sun was in the middle of setting as we walked around, and the weather could not have been more perfect.  Though we were up on top of one of the highest hills in Athens, it was strangely warm and tranquil.  There was barely any wind, the sky was breaking through the clouds of the day, and it just took us all by surprise.  The city of Athens at night is a spectacle, and I can’t tell you how many pictures I took, because I honestly lost count.  I just wanted to take pictures of every angle possible.  It couldn’t have been a more refreshing end to a very stressful day of travel.  I’m thankful we got to have the opportunity.  And, the sleep that night was even sweeter.  Here are a few photos of the magic we got to see.

This is the below photo of the main section of the hill. This photo was taken after we strolled up the side for about 20 minutes on rock trails.  Needless to say, after jogging up trails one needs a break! (AKA Zach is a bit out of shape...)

This tower is the highest point of Mount Lycabettus.  At the top of the hill there is a small Greek Orthodox church, and this is the steeple bell that they use to ring every hour during the day. The city of Athens is posted up (kind-of) in the background.

Athens at night. Truly, I tell you that no photo any of us took could do this sight justice.  The coolest part is that we saw this city from when no lights were on to this in less than an hour.

Shameless selfie with the city in the background!

The second day of our three-day excursion in Athens, we spent the day exploring the ancient heart of the city, Acropolis.  Acropolis, for those of who are not as avid in Greek mythology (like myself), it is the essentially the ancient remains of the spiritual center for Athena.  This area contains the famous Parthenon, the temple of Athena, and the garden of ancient Agora.  Around the outside of the ancient center, there’s even more, such as the Acropolis Museum, the temple of Zeus, and Hadrian’s Arch.  Basically, there’s a lot of history to be seen.  During our very wet journey through ancient Greek history, we got to experience almost all of the aforementioned places, except for the garden of Agora (mainly because we didn’t have enough time to hit it). 

So, we walked through Acropolis, ate lunch at a local café, had some authentic Greek frozen yogurt right next door afterwards, went and visited the temple of Zeus and Emperor Hadrian’s Arch, and ended our day with a trip to the Acropolis museum.  This museum was all of the remains of the Acropolis area that could be preserved, and it was FREE.  Why you ask?  Well, because we’re students that are currently studying in the European Union (Spain).  So, that was a nice perk.  Thankful for our international student ID card that we got so many months ago!  It has really come in handy during our days here in Europe.  We ended the night just relaxing and drying off in our hotel.  Our clothes were all kinds of wet, our shoes were swimming pools by the end of the night, and we were all a little under the weather (literally and figuratively).  Also, because of all the walking and still recovering from a very sleepless night in the airport, we all decided to hit the sack a little early.  However, a nice hour-long conversation with the guys (Alec and Andrew) before snoozing was also fine.  Now, how about some pictures to paint the day’s picture?  I thought so.

That hill in the background? Yeah...that's Mount Lycabettus. We scaled that bad boy. :)

Greek pride!

The very well-known Parthenon. It was the temple to worship the goddess Athena back in the day.

Greek frozen yogurt! Complete with mango, pineapple, strawberries, and nutella. It was an experience for sure.

The temple of Zeus.  Fun fact: we didn't get to actually go up to it in person because the attraction was closed, but don't worry: we got some sick photos-through-the-fence action.  Skills.

Dinner the second night in Athens.  Above we have a gyro (of course) with all the fixins (fried potatoes, tatziki [cucumber sauce], lettuce, tomato, and feta, feta cheese in olive oil, cucumber and tomato salad, and halva [a typical Greek dessert]).

Our final full day in Athens was actually a sunny one, from start to finish!  That in itself was a blessing and a half!  Everything else we did was just enhanced because of that.  Our agenda started with nothing in particular to do, but as every other day in the life, we found all kinds of things to do.  Because our group didn’t have the chance to visit the garden of ancient Agora, we started there.  After the garden, we spent some time visiting the Agora marketplace that was going on.  We browsed, I bought a bracelet with my Zodiac sign on it (Capricorn for life!), ate lunch (or, in my case, dessert-ed with a flaky pastry and custard type dish), traveled through the city squares to browse more shops, watched some street acts, found the Parliament building and the Greek National Gardens, and ended the night with a trip to a local gyro restaurant for dinner before returning to the hotel for the night.  Picture time?

The garden of Ancient Agora. Isn't it ridiculously pretty?! That sun does wonders to a landscape!

The view of Acropolis hill (right) and the Agora museum (left).  Fun fact: this is the highest point in the garden, and the landscape is just right here. Such a perfect photo-taking spot.

What we saw in our travels through the town squares in central Athens: street acts complete with Greek break dancers.  They were pretty much rockin' it.

This photo was taken in front of the Greek Parliament during the hour for the changing of the guard.  Like in Britain at Buckingham Palace, every hour on the hour the guards transition, and when they do, it's ultimate entertainment.  They move with exaggerated leg and arm motions, kind of like toy soldiers, and (as you can see above) the garb is crazy hilarious.  And, we can take photos with them!  Lucky them.  They look enthused.

The center of the Greek National Gardens. Such a lovely thinking spot.

Fun fact: Athens is filled with pigeons.  We pretty much saw them every minute of every hour we were there.

Fun fact: I have eaten more gyros in the last three days than I think I have in my entire life.  That may be a slight exaggeration, but after eating them almost every meal in different styles, that’s how it has seemed.  Another fun fact: after walking around all day, we noticed that our trip lasted almost 7 hours and we covered almost 16 miles in distance.  No wonder our feet hurt by the end of the day!  Again, going to bed at 9 didn’t sound like such a bad idea.  Especially since the next morning we would be leaving really early to catch a ferry to our next spring break destination.

After traveling all around the great city of Athens, our group was definitely ready for something a little more relaxed...a little more tranquil.  So, what is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word "tranquil"?  Reading a good book?  Sleeping?  Taking a stroll without purpose?  All great options.  For us, we were thinking of something a bit more beachy.

So, the Monday of spring break, we woke up super early and trudged through the rain to the Athens metro and then from there to the local port of Piraeus.  We were on our way to Mykonos!  Mykonos is typically known for lots of beaches, lots of parties, and lots of people from all over the world.  However, we were traveling there during their off season, so we quickly learned that all of those things were not really the norm, but we made do anyways (and yes, we still went to the beach).

Our "ferry". Or, as I like to call it, our ship that people like to call a ferry.

The first day we were there it rained almost all day.  So, after we found our hotel apartment we rented, we decided to take a stab at exploring the local shops.  It was fairly easy, seeing as many things were closed for the winter, but we still had fun (after all, it's the people that matters)!  So, as per usual, we had some souvlaki and returned back to the apartment to chill for a while.  It eventually cleared up, and after it did we took another stroll.  We managed to catch a pretty sweet sunset...

...we got to see some locals, and stop at a cafe for some stellar hot chocolate and baklava.  We also nabbed some internet, since our apartment connection was having problems.  We quickly learned that it was hard to imagine living before technology.  We honestly couldn't function!  It was pretty ridiculous...and slightly amusing.  We ended the night playing games and laughing...a ton.

Like I said...hot chocolate and baklava.

The next day was clear!  So...we all got pretty excited.  We walked around for a while, shopped for snacks at a local supermarket, at lunch at a local cafe to celebrate our friend Brittany's birthday (she turned 21 on a Greek island!).  We traveled to Paradise beach, one of the more popular beaches during the summer.  The beach was on the other side of the island, so it was kind of nice to see the sun strike the island in a fresh way, and also strike conversation with the taxi driver that took us.

Fun fact: Greek people, especially islanders, are wonderful people.  And they are extremely helpful!  We got to the beach and found out that we were the only eight people there.  So it was spacious.  It was quiet, it was a bit chilly, but it was great!  Here's some photos!

This is the coastline of the boat dock in the center of Mykonos. What strikes me the most is that the water is so BLUE here. Gosh. It's beautiful.

This guy was around town a lot. We (and by we, I really mean just me) decided to name him Marty. Marty the pelican. He's pretty fly. And pink.

This is the coastline of Paradise Beach. Again...SO BLUE. I could have stared at it for hours.

Fun fact: this beach actually looks a lot warmer than it really was. It may SEEM like it's 80 degrees here, but it really was only around 60...with a breeze...of maybe 25 mph. But it was still worth it!

We ended the day by having dinner together in our apartment and going out to a local cocktail bar for a drink (also to celebrate Brittany's birthday).  I had a peach shot and finished with a hot chocolate, because that's how I roll.  Shortly after we went to bed, because we had to catch the ferry back to Athens so we could make it to our final destination: Santorini.

We spent about three days there total soaking up the sun, having a lot of laughs, and of course: eating a ton of gyros and Greek yogurt.  Our hotel was about 15 minutes from the main town of the island (Fira) and within walking distance of pretty much all of the stuff we did.

The first day we started out by soaking up the sun and traveling to another local island, also a part of Santorini.  The island, about 15 minutes by ferry, was no ordinary island...it was a volcano!  Literally the entire thing was created soley by eruptions from this bad boy.  It was pretty rad.  Anyways, we got the chance to scale the many hills, catch some spectacular views, and of course: swim in a not-so-hot hot spring in the center.  I, however, along with one other friend, did not partake, as we did not have a towel to dry off or a desire to jump into cold water.  We had more fun talking with other American travelers and soaking up more sun!  Here are some shots from the journey. :)

Volcano island!

You would thinking walking around this volcano in flip flops would have been tough.  It surprisingly wasn't. But I did feel it afterwards. But more so in my legs than in my feet.

The sights on this island were incredible. So many angles...so many small islands to look at. So much BLUE.

Greetings from Santorini Island!

These were two of the four brave souls in our group that decided to take a dive in the hot spring. Apparently, the hot spring was warm at the top (the first 8 inches or so), but then after that things just got super cold. They had an adventure for sure! I just didn't feel like being all that adventurous.

Santorini in the afternoon sun!

The rest of the day we lazed around in the hotel, acted like goofballs, and waited around for dinner time to show up.  We spent the evening traveling around the city at night, exploring shops, getting rained on, and (like all other meal times) eating souvlaki at our favorite local souvlaki restaurant.  Fun fact: we ate at this place four times in two days...no big deal.

This is the restaurant we spent every lunch and dinner at. It was soooooooooo good. And super cheap. So why NOT go there multiple times?

During our stay inside, we came across not only one rainbow, but TWO. Double the rainbow, double the fun.  This was an attempt at a group selfie in the rain. Not our best work, but certainly not our most boring either. ;)

We laid in bed together, for almost three hours. No big deal.

The last day we were there we traveled by bus to a local black sand beach called Perissa.  We spent the afternoon chilling at the beach, making friends with a local stray dog, and I had the chance to chill on the rocks and enjoy the beauty of God's creating and spend some time in prayer.

This guy (we ended up calling him Ricky) hung out with us pretty much all afternoon we were at the beach. He dug a lot of holes, fetched some rocks for us, and we even took him for a couple of jogs along the coast. He didn't really have anything else to do, and we decided to have some fun. It's amazing how many loose animals there are in Greece...

While out on those rocks, I was just amazed by how much the Lord has been working through the very broken parts of my life, and ultimately how I have seen my life be transformed and redirected constantly through his very real guidance.  My sight has been by NO means crystal clear, but to see where I started and where I came from, to where I am now, it's striking.  I never could have done the things I have without him, especially being here, in Europe, completely out of my element of comfort at home.  And even though I live my life with so much doubt and struggle and worry, God is STILL there to pick me up and love me when I fail.  And being in Greece for a week definitely continued to edify that idea.  I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity.  It was a really solid and beautiful time, filled with so many sights and so much history.  And despite all things, I prayed that I could simply learn true hope and gain true faith.  For me, these moments of reflection are the best.  And it certainly was worth the trip out to Perissa. :)

The view from the rocks I perched myself on. :)

The day ended with more chill time, working on finalizing scholarship applications and packing up for the trip back to Spain the next day.  We ate at the local gyro place on last time, and spent the night hanging out in the hotel breaking the ice more, building community, and just enjoying the night off together.  We got up early the next morning, ate a quick breakfast (complete with greek yogurt and honey mixed with cereal...NOM), made our way to the Santorini airport to fly back to Athens, and then a few hours later we made our way back to Madrid and Segovia.

And so concludes spring break! What'd ya think? I know...I'm too detailed.  But, for some reason, I like filling people in and also reminding myself of all that went down.  Anyways, since you've been such a good audience, I thought that I would continue the tradition of looking for a verse that I feel really connected with me during this part of the trip.  During that time on the rocks of Perissa, I thought a lot about just how much I loved the idea of God's grace in my life.  I may live this life out, but without direction I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing or where I'm going.  This verse is a reminder of that very thing: that God truly is a rock and the ultimate leader. :)

"In you, Lord, I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in Your righteousness.  Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.  Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of YOUR NAME lead me and guide me." -Psalm 31:1-3