Athens, Greece

The Acropolis is UNBELIEVABLE. I arrived in Athens late on the 19th with just enough time to catch a glimpse of the acropolis lit up at night from the corner by my hostel and crawl into bed. Even at night it looked amazing.

In Madrid I parted ways with Clair and Megan and joined up with Oz, Heather and Jesse from Madison and Bobby and Bennett (his friend from Hastings and Brussels) in Athens. We had a good crew, and it felt so good to be back with old friends! I was excited for the adventures ahead.

Thursday morning the 20th we got up early and headed to the Acropolis. It really was unreal being in the presence of these ancient parts of history...these buildings were built in the 5th century BC! There is so much to see on the grounds of the Acropolis, we toured for about 3 hours! The weather was gorgeous which only added to the awe of what I was actually experiencing...seeing the Parthenon, the erecthin, the various ancient theatres, and taking in the breathtaking views of the sprawling city of Athens lying below us. So cool. After our self-guided tour we grabbed lunch at an outdoor cafe at the foot of the acropolis and headed over to the travel agencies to book some ferry tickets for the islands!! A few roadblocks later, we stumbled upon a few great people to help us book and plan our ferry rides! We decided on the "tiny, cute, beautiful" island of Poros as our first destination (said in a really high, cute voice by our wonderful lady we found at the tour office), followed by the bigger, more touristy island of Hydra. We couldn't make it to the famous Santorini due to different flight departure dates and time constraints, but we were optimistic for our travels!!

Thursday night we celebrated Oz's 21st with a dinner cooked in our apartment we had for the night, a few bottles of wine, and a night out at a local Athens bar with our hostel! Really great night overall--a definite 21st success! We finally wandered home at about 3:30 in the morning and had a ferry to catch at 9 the next morning! Excited to see the islands!!!