Athens and Aegina

I am going to try something a little different for this blog. Instead of typing a massive paragraph I am going to tell my story through the photos that I took. But first I must explain that last week I had a five-day break. Spur of the moment, my friend Cydney and I decided that we would travel to Greece during that time. So we booked a ticket and left the next day. To do this we took a bus to Istanbul and an hour flight to Athens. The rest of our friends traveled to Eastern Turkey during the break. They survived, but the areas they traveled to were not the safest and their plans were not very clear. In Greece we explored Athens and the small island of Aegina. Here is my trip through photos:


We arrived in Athens at 9 AM on Wednesday morning. We found the Athens Backpackers hostel and had lunch. Getting off the metro for our hostel we could see the Acropolis!

Cydney and I bought passes to see seven of the ancient ruins in Athens. We then proceeded to climb up to the Acropolis and walk to all seven sites.

From the top of the acropolis we could see two mountains. The next day we climbed those mountains and went to a flee market, where I bought Greek sandals. The first mountain we saw was Filopappos Hill (which had these ruins), and the second was Lykavittos Hill (which had the Church of St. George). From both mountains you could see the Acropolis and the entire city!




On Thursday night we had dinner and stayed with our friend Melanie. Melanie is a Junior at Pomona and studying abroad in Greece. On Friday we went with Melanie and some of the people she is on the Greek program with to Aegina. It is a smaller Greek island about a 45 minute ferry ride from Athens. We spent two days and one night exploring the island. The first day we went swimming and hung out on the beach. The second day (Saturday) we went to the Temple of Aphaea (Zeus’s daughter's temple) and a huge Greek Orthodox church and monastery. Then it started to rain heavily and we went back to Athens.




Saturday night we had dinner and walked around Athens. Sunday was Cydney’s birthday so we slept in and walked around through the flea market again. We also went to a fancy ice-cream shop, where everything is handmade.

Sunday night we had dinner with Melanie and friends to celebrate. Then Cydney and I went back to the hostel for the night. We had to go to sleep early on Sunday so that we could catch a 4:30 AM bus to the airport on Monday morning.

To conclude, Greece was amazing! The people were very kind and laid back. The atmosphere of Athens was so nice -- life there goes at a great pace: not too fast and not too slow. It was a great break from Turkey, and the food was delicious. If you go, I would definitely recommend eating zucchini balls and spanakopita. In general I recommend Greece as a place to visit to anyone with strong knees and looking for a great historical place to relax!