Greek Greetings

I've been travelling faster than I can blog so I'm a bit behind on blogging. My post about Athens will be short since my stay there was only one full day.

I have seen Roman ruins in almost every country I have visited. I figured it was time to travel back even further in time to check out some Greek ruins. I visited the Temple of Olympian Zeus during a thunderstorm which made for a rather dramatic visit.

Then, I turned around and saw a sign boasting about the Roman ruins. I can't escape them!

If you have a European Union student card in Athens, you can get into all of the ruins and museums for free. Since this is probably the only time in my life I'll have an EU student card, I tried to take full advantage by visiting as many ruins as possible. Of course, I saw the most touristy sight in all of Athens: the Acropolis.

The view from the Acropolis was lovely.

I also visited the Olympic Stadium, the site of the first modern Olympics and near the proximity of the ancient Olympic sites. The stadium also hosted later games, most recently the 2004 games. In the past year, I have seen the Olympic stadiums in Barcelona, London, and Torino so it was nice to add Athens to the list.

This is the closest I'll ever get to an Olympic podium (finding a British pair partner, obtaining British citizenship, and representing the UK hasn't happened yet).

I was literally the only person who actually went inside the museum. They had many Olympic torches, including the one from Sochi 2014!

Aside from looking at ruins and Olympic stadiums, I spent most of my trip socializing in the garden at Athens Quinta hostel. This hostel was one of the best I've ever stayed in (tied in atmosphere with Freedom Traveller in Rome and tied in accommodation with Hostel Archi Rossi in Florence) and was really inexpensive. The staff was lovely and made all of us feel like a friend come to visit rather than a customer. I met so many great people from all over the world (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Poland, Switzerland, Turkmenistan, Israel, Canada, Greece, and Georgia) that I enjoyed chatting with in the garden, even if they did make me almost miss my flight to Berlin... (thanks Carolin! ;) ) But, I made it to my gate just as boarding started.

I visited Greece long enough to say, "Oh, yes, I do like it here. I must come back." Next trip to Greece, I want to check out some of the islands like Santorini or Crete. Hopefully someday! I'll have posts about Berlin and Amsterdam soon!