Athens

The entire time I've been in Greece, there has been one place that I have wanted to go more than anything: Athens. Even before I graced the streets of Greece, I've dreamt of going to Athens, specifically to see the Theater of Dionysus and of course all the other monuments as well.

Low and behold, a couple weeks ago the school brought the entire study abroad program on a weekend trip to Athens. It was incredible. We arrived around dinner time on Friday night. Our hotel was awesome! The beds were so nice. Rain and I got a little rowdy and indulged in a few minutes of jumping on the beds! We didn’t have anything planned for the night so the Diakonia crew (the ten of us that are in my hotel) went to dinner together at this cute little restaurant. Most of us ate some delicious pasta. Kosmas even treated us to a few tunes on the piano. It was a very relaxing night.

The first thing on the itinerary the next morning was a tour of the new Acropolis Museum (built this past summer) and all the monuments. The museum was different than any other museum I’ve ever been in. The best part about it was that underneath the museum there are excavated ruins. In the museum they have used glass for big parts of the floor so when you are walking through you can still see these ruins. It adds a whole other dynamic to the presentation of the ancient artifacts. It preserves the culture and history of Ancient Greece while also allowing Modern Greece to grow and expand. The tour of the monuments was breathtaking. You only think you know what these ancient buildings will look like, but when you actually see them in person they are astounding. You can’t help but stand there and fantasize about ancient Greece. It’s so easy to stand there and imagine people walking around with gladiator style shoes and beautiful robes.

The Music Hall

Diakonia at the Parthenon!

Unfortunately the Parthenon was undergoing construction when we were there. The interesting part of that, however, was that they are attempting to reconstruct parts of it from new marble. Therefore you can visually see the differences between the ancient remains and the fill-ins. Some people didn’t like the idea of basically reconstructing these monuments, but in my opinion it would be great to come back in 10 years and see all these buildings in full.

After our tour the school took us out to a traditional lunch at a local tavern where we got to eat gyros! Of course, one of my favorite parts of this trip would be the food. After lunch, a couple of us went off to get a closer look at The Theater of Dionysus. That was quite possibly one of the most magical moments of my life. Unfortunately, I can’t even describe to you how I felt sitting there in the theater, because was beyond words.

Me at the Theater of Dionysus

The next day we went to see The Changing of The Guard, which is basically a ceremonious exchange of shifts between the guards at the>>>>>>>>>. After this we had some free time, so we all went to get crepes and coffee and then went shopping at the market.

Overall, my trip to Athens was fantastic. It really truly hit me that I was in Greece.