Hello everyone!
This is the end of my first full day here and it has already been so incredibly wonderful. We left as a group of 18 PLU students with our professor and then staff member from Seattle, WA on Friday around 1:25pm and then landed in Greece around 4pm the following day, Saturday the 7th. We flew to Amsterdam first and then to Athens from there after a 3 hour layover so that was fun as well. We all explored the airport a bit as a group before heading back to our gate and trying to get wifi. Our gate was all the way at the end of one wing of the airport and from there we had a great sunny view of the
When we arrived in Greece we all trudged off the plane, a bit weary eyed but also excited to see this beautiful country we are in. Our professor, Finitsis, immediately bought his favorite treat in the airport, apparently an annual occurrence. We hopped on a charter bus that was saved for PLU and got to see a bit of the sprawling city of Athens before arriving at our apartments. Our apartments are pretty nice, there are four of us girls in this apartment, Khadijah and Lauren are sharing a room and then both Jill and I have our own room. We have a common area right as you walk in, three bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and a wrap around balcony outside where we can see the street outside and the little alley next door.
After we got settled in we headed out to get dinner, souvlaki which is what we think of as a gyro , and it was amazing. We got some things from the market up the street for dinner the following morning and then headed out to complete the infamous death march so named by our Professor Finitsis. This is the walk that always happens the first night of arrival and by that time everyone is fairly exhausted. We walked around the hill that the Parthenon sits on and into the depths of the city of Athens. We saw the acropolis lit up at night and walked on the wide cobblestone streets staring in awe at everything that we saw. It was an amazing experience despite the exhaustion but after the two hours of touring the city we were all ready to head straight to bed.
This morning Sunday January 8th I woke up around 9:15am to the news that we would be leaving as a group to go and explore the city around 10:15am so I got ready and we met up with the group and headed out to investigate.
We did get a little turned around at the beginning but we quickly found our way and headed back down some of the streets that we explored the previous night during the death march. We made our way to the flea market and spread out into smaller groups our heads turning every couple of seconds taking something else in. There were many colors, sounds, and smells that were new and exciting. The vendors were nice enough, usually trying to sell us things shouting in Greek or else smiling seeing that we were American and greeting us in English.
We wandered in and out of different stores within the flea market for an hour or two finding everything from koala hats to Greek prayer beads. After a quick lunch of sandwiches and cokes from a cafe we headed into new territory further in the city and found the outdoor market that seems to only happen on Sundays. There were a ton of people there and seemed like quite the occasion, blankets spread every which way with goodies stacked on top of them, vendors haggling trying to get rid of things for good prices. We slowly began to make our way backtracking our walk around the hill, that has the acropolis atop it, from last night and by then it was time to head back to the College Year in Athens headquarters where we watched our movie as our school lesson of the day.
Tonight we had a great meal that our Professor Finitsis treated us to at a family owned restaurant. We got a bunch of food and then basically shared everything as a group so that we could try it all which was a great idea and a fun experience.
Well now we are all headed to bed, at least in our apartment. I will be blogging again tomorrow so don't you worry. Thanks for reading!
Camille
This is the end of my first full day here and it has already been so incredibly wonderful. We left as a group of 18 PLU students with our professor and then staff member from Seattle, WA on Friday around 1:25pm and then landed in Greece around 4pm the following day, Saturday the 7th. We flew to Amsterdam first and then to Athens from there after a 3 hour layover so that was fun as well. We all explored the airport a bit as a group before heading back to our gate and trying to get wifi. Our gate was all the way at the end of one wing of the airport and from there we had a great sunny view of the
When we arrived in Greece we all trudged off the plane, a bit weary eyed but also excited to see this beautiful country we are in. Our professor, Finitsis, immediately bought his favorite treat in the airport, apparently an annual occurrence. We hopped on a charter bus that was saved for PLU and got to see a bit of the sprawling city of Athens before arriving at our apartments. Our apartments are pretty nice, there are four of us girls in this apartment, Khadijah and Lauren are sharing a room and then both Jill and I have our own room. We have a common area right as you walk in, three bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and a wrap around balcony outside where we can see the street outside and the little alley next door.
After we got settled in we headed out to get dinner, souvlaki which is what we think of as a gyro , and it was amazing. We got some things from the market up the street for dinner the following morning and then headed out to complete the infamous death march so named by our Professor Finitsis. This is the walk that always happens the first night of arrival and by that time everyone is fairly exhausted. We walked around the hill that the Parthenon sits on and into the depths of the city of Athens. We saw the acropolis lit up at night and walked on the wide cobblestone streets staring in awe at everything that we saw. It was an amazing experience despite the exhaustion but after the two hours of touring the city we were all ready to head straight to bed.
This morning Sunday January 8th I woke up around 9:15am to the news that we would be leaving as a group to go and explore the city around 10:15am so I got ready and we met up with the group and headed out to investigate.
We did get a little turned around at the beginning but we quickly found our way and headed back down some of the streets that we explored the previous night during the death march. We made our way to the flea market and spread out into smaller groups our heads turning every couple of seconds taking something else in. There were many colors, sounds, and smells that were new and exciting. The vendors were nice enough, usually trying to sell us things shouting in Greek or else smiling seeing that we were American and greeting us in English.
We wandered in and out of different stores within the flea market for an hour or two finding everything from koala hats to Greek prayer beads. After a quick lunch of sandwiches and cokes from a cafe we headed into new territory further in the city and found the outdoor market that seems to only happen on Sundays. There were a ton of people there and seemed like quite the occasion, blankets spread every which way with goodies stacked on top of them, vendors haggling trying to get rid of things for good prices. We slowly began to make our way backtracking our walk around the hill, that has the acropolis atop it, from last night and by then it was time to head back to the College Year in Athens headquarters where we watched our movie as our school lesson of the day.
Tonight we had a great meal that our Professor Finitsis treated us to at a family owned restaurant. We got a bunch of food and then basically shared everything as a group so that we could try it all which was a great idea and a fun experience.
Well now we are all headed to bed, at least in our apartment. I will be blogging again tomorrow so don't you worry. Thanks for reading!
Camille
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