Blogs from Athens, Attica, Greece, Europe - page 111

Well when the opportunity arose for me to join my friends in Athens for Thanksgiving I of course jumped at the chance! Abby is studying there for the semester and Amelia, coming from Rome, Ali, coming from Amsterdam, and I all converged upon her and her fair city for four glorious days of fun. It was a very mellow adventure full of long chats and exploring the city, oh, and the food, how could I forget the food! Thursday was spent traveling to Athens and inside because of rain and wind but we ate our first gyros and Greek salad so the night was far from a waste. Not quite the usual Thanksgiving feast but I was warmed by being with my good friends and found myself at home in a very foreign place. Friday we ... read more

So we left Florence after having a wicked time and then made our way to Rome. At Rome we stayed in a tiny hostel in the middle of the city and met a few cool guys from Oz and the UK. We saw the Colleseum ( i know i spelt it wrong! as i will do for everything else), the Pantheon, had a laugh at the dresses on the Swiss guards of Vatican City, saw the Spanish Steps, and lots of other well famous bits and pieces. After 4 days in Rome we jumped on a train and went south to Brindisi where we stayed at a hostel for the night and then boarded a ferry destined for Patra in Greece. After 16 hours on the big boat, we hopped on a train and arrived in ... read more

So this past weekend was lots of fun! We decided to take an overnight train to Thessaloniki late Thursday night and then were ready for a full day on Monday! While Thessaloniki is still Greece's second largest city, I got the feeling it was much less cosmopolitan than Athens. We referenced our Greece guidebooks and made sure we went around to see as many sites as possible, visiting museuems, churches, interacting with Greek people, and just walking around! We decided to go to Thessaloniki to get a taste for northern Greece, since much of our free weekends thus far have been spent on beautiful Greek islands! Oh- and good news! I've unloading my pictures from my camera thanks to help from HP customer service. So tomorrow I can start showing what Greece looks like! More to ... read more

Well, what's taken me so long!? Here I have been in Greece for over a month and am just now managing to create my blog.... that must just mean I've been super busy doing all the cool stuff I'm going to tell you about! As it turns out, this study abroad program incorporates field trips and class trips galore into the curriculum. Thus, each weekend I have found myself in some other locale within Greece. I'll be updating with pictures soon- as soon as I've gotten the pictures off my camera- with more details as to what each picture represents! As of now I'm off to enjoy some stuffed tomatoes for lunch- a Greek speciality- and then I'm off to Greek class itself! Anyway, more updates coming soon!... read more

The final day of the tour has arrived. As with everything in life, all good things must come to an end. Those of us who were staying at this hotel one more night had to remove their things from the room only to be reassigned another room later this afternoon. Thankfully, we were able to store our things in a locked room behind the reception desk until then. After breakfast, we boarded the coach one last time for our drive to visit the Acropolis. Once at the foot of the Acropolis, it was a relatively steady incline to get to the Parthenon. Since it was a warm day today, I knew this wasn't going to be easy. We got our ticket which also provided us with entrance to a few other sites around town. The ... read more