Two days in the Country!

We finally finished our 11 final exams on Wednesday! We then had our last dinner at the condorcet together that night! We all pretty much ended up crying because it was so sad to leave a place that had been our home for the last 4 months! One of the girls also made a slideshow which made us cry even harder! Even though it was sad, it was nice to have that time together to say goodbye and relive the memories a little bit! After dinner we all went out and sat around a table at a bar and just talked about our time here and how funny it was to look back to the beginning when we didn't know anything and were so nervous! We then went to another bar and met all of the other kids who were in our classes so we could say goodbye to them too! That was the hardest part, at least with our group we will see each other again in the fall, but we might not see our other friends we made in class ever again! Wednesday was basically our day of goodbyes, but then from Thursday-Friday, I went to the country with my host family! They have a house in Frôtlois which is about 80km from Dijon! It was a gorgeous house (pictures throughout the blog) and the house dates back to the 16th century which is incredible! I also loved my room for the night! It was perfectly decorated and very ME! On Thursday we went to Semur-en-Auxois, another medieval town near Frôtlois, and we just walked around! It was a really cute town and much more lively than Frôtlois and Flavigny! There was a race going on while we were there so we kept on having to dodge the runners! Then that evening we had dinner with some of the cousins who were there which was nice! The next day we all got up late and just hung around the house! After lunch I went on a walk around Frôtlois with my host mom and we ended up getting to go inside the castle that was there! It wasn't really a castle because it was from the middle ages, so it looked more like a house! We were able to walk on the terraces and meet the dogs of the man who lives there! It was really fun! Then we headed back to Dijon because I had to be back for a cocktail with the American parents! That was where we finally actually had to say goodbye to all the girls in our group and to Nathalie! The only part that made the goodbyes easier was that we will see Nathalie in October when she comes to Tacoma, and then of course I will see all the others in August! Even so, leaving the condorcet for the last time was really sad, and walking to the bus stop, and taking our last bus from centreville! I just finished my last meal with my host family as well! Since it's all happening so fast it doesn't feel quite real yet, but I'm sure it will hit me once I get on the train and pull away from Dijon! It really has been an incredible semester here and the experience of a lifetime! Studying abroad was probably one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life!!

BUT it's not over yet - updates on Berlin, Prague, Salzburg and Venice to come soon!

Flavigny and a Chateau

So I've gotten a little bit behind on blog posts because of finals and getting ready to leave! But before I leave for a train to Berlin in a few hours I thought I would try to quickly update! So for our very last excursion we went with our professor who was here from the US to Chateau Bussy-Rabutin and then to Flavigny which is where the movie Chocolat with Johnny Depp was filmed! The castle was gorgeous but our guide was kind of boring so I don't have a lot to say about the history of the castle! The castle was built in the 16th century, and then like most other castles, they added onto it in the centuries afterwards! The most stunning part of the castle was the gardens because they were all in bloom! We also walked through a labyrinth! Then after the castle we went onto Flavigny which is a cute and very small medieval town! It is famous for it's anise candies, and they have these candies in other flavors besides anise as well! We also saw in Flavigny the window that was the chocolate store in Chocolat, and we saw the church that was in the movie as well! It was a fun day excursion and a nice way to spend our last weekend together in Dijon!

fun, Fun, FUN in the Sun in Provence

Our last excursion to Provence began on a sunny, Friday morning at around 9am! We all arrived at the train station in Dijon where we had a direct train to Avignon, our first stop in possibly the most beautiful region in France!
We arrived in Avignon in the late morning and checked into our hotel which was right next to the most famous historical site in Avignon, Le Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). Now you might be a little bit confused about why there is a Papal Palace in Southern France, but don’t worry I will explain later. After checking into the hotel we went to lunch at a restaurant which faced Le Palais des Papes and since it was about 80 degrees outside we were able to sit outside and enjoy our lunch. At lunch I played my new favorite game which is guessing what country each table is from. It’s more fun to play this in very touristy cities because almost every table will have a guide book open on the table so all you have to figure out is the language of the guide book. We saw one couple with a guide book in English and we guessed they were either from England or from Scotland because of the way they were dressed. Before I came here I didn’t believe that Americans were so easy to spot in a crowd, but it’s true, usually the Americans tend to be the ones that look the most lost and also you can usually tell by the way they are dressed because they tend to not dress as nicely as most Europeans. Also because of the stereotype of “backpacking around Europe,” if any tourist has a backpack you can be almost 99% sure that they are American. This does not mean that American tourists are doing anything wrong; it’s just funny how much we, as Americans, tend to not blend in. After lunch we went to have our tour of Le Palais des Papes which was AMAZING!! We had a great tour guide who gave us so much interesting information. I took notes afterwards so I would be able to remember it all when I wrote my blog. The popes were in Provence from around 1309-1409, and they were there at a time when Provence was not part of France yet. The first pope in Avignon was Clement V (a French Pope elected in Rome) and he chose to come to Provence for two reasons; one was to escape the civil wars in Rome and the second was to come to France and stop the King of France from threatening the Catholics. Before coming to Avignon he went through France, and once he had felt like he made enough of an impact to stop the King from threatening the Catholics, he came to Avignon for safety. So that is the story of how the popes ended up in France, but after that our guide explained to us more about the palace and also how the Papacy ended up back in Italy. Benoît XII began building the palace while he was Pope and his part of the Palace took 11 years to build, then Clement VI expanded the Palace and that took another 7 years, which means in total the Palace took 18 years to build. This Palace was the largest gothic palace in all of Europe, and its construction helped to make it the center of culture of Europe. The architects of the Palace came from Paris, the ceramics on the floor came from Spain, and the artists who did the frescoes came from Italy. Both Clement VI and Benoît XIII brought the best of the best to come and construct their Papal Palace. Clement the VI didn’t only expand the Palace, he also bought Avignon and so it was land of the church until the Revolutionary War in France in 1789 when the revolutionaries offered the people of Avignon liberty, equality, and fraternity and the people of Avignon thought that was a great offer, and so they finally became a part of France. Also during the revolutionary war the revolutionaries unfortunately destroyed a lot of the Palace because it was a symbol of the bourgeoisie, but the city of Avignon has restored a lot of the palace so it still looks beautiful today. Some of the most impressive parts of the Palace were the frescoes, the chimney, the treasure tower, and the pope’s window. The frescoes were in surprisingly good shape, especially in the pope’s bedroom, and it was amazing to see paintings that old that still were very colorful and hardly faded at all. Since they are in such good condition we were unfortunately not allowed to take photos because they didn’t want flash to fade them any further. The chimney in the palace was also very impressive (just above) since it was so incredibly tall, and is one of the tallest chimneys in the world. Our guide compared the pope’s window (above to the right) in this palace to the precedent of the window that the Pope looks out of today onto St. Peter’s Square; similar to the Pope today, this window is where the Pope in Avignon would give his benedictions on big religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. The most interesting thing we saw on the tour was the Treasure Tower (to the right). It wasn’t interesting in terms of appearance but in terms of how the Palace was structured. There were three treasures held in this tower; the money, the library and the Pope. There were windows opening to each treasure and it was just interesting to think about what they considered as treasures back then because of course the Catholic church had a lot of money, books at the time were very precious, and the Pope was the leader of the Catholic church thus making him very valuable as well. The end of the tour was when we finally learned how it ended up that the Popes are no longer in Avignon, but in Rome. Pope Gregoire decided to leave Avignon during his reign and go back to Rome, but in Rome they didn’t want a French pope, they wanted an Italian pope, so Gregoire returned to Avignon and for 40 years there was both a French and a Roman pope. Then the Emperor decided that there should only be a pope in Rome because that is where the first pope was buried – Saint Peter – so the French pope ceased to exist and that is why we now have only a Pope in Rome. After this incredible tour we went to the Palace Gardens which were beautiful and had a fantastic view of Avignon. After that we headed back to the hotel to rest a little bit before dinner. We had dinner at a small but great restaurant where I had a great salad and some pasta with real shavings of parmesan – the first legit parmesan I’ve had in France.

On Saturday we headed to Arles where we had another guided visit. Julius Caesar founded the city of Arles in around 46BC, and many Roman ruins still exist there today. We visited the Roman Theater first which was incredible and still surprisingly in pretty good shape. We then visited the Roman Amphitheater which is the 20th biggest Roman Amphitheater in the world. They had to remove city walls in order for the Amphitheater to be built, and it was built in the reign of Augustus near the end of 1st century AD. Here they mostly had the fights of gladiators and fights with animals as well which is why there is a big wall to protect the audience from the fighting. We learned that the gladiators did not have a very great life because they were worked extremely hard and they were not legally allowed to refuse a fight. They would also get abused by their “guardians” who were basically their coaches. So even though there room and board was paid for and they had the choice of whichever woman they wanted, their life wasn’t really all that easy. After seeing all the Roman ruins we went to two sites where Van Gogh painted. Van Gogh lived in Arles from 1888 until his death. You can see the yellow cafe in Arles which he painted in his famous painting entitled Le Café de Nuit (The Night Cafe), and you can also see the garden where he painted Le Jardin de l’Hôpital (The Garden of the Hospital)- the photo of the garden is way at the end of this post. That was the end of our guided visit. Afterwards we got to walk around the HUGE market in Arles where we bought some lavender soap which is the quintessential souvenir from Provence. We then left for a town called Saintes Maries de La Mer where we ate lunch on the beach and then tanned on the beach and even saw in the Mediterranean. It was in the high 70s and the water was SO warm…I finally got to experience the stereotype of the warm Mediterranean. After the beach we went to another town called Aigues Mortes where we stayed at the most luxurious hotel I’ve ever stayed in. There were four girls to almost every room and we had huge beds, a bathroom with two shower, robes for all of us, our own pairs of slippers which we got to take home and small bottles Clarins shampoo and conditioner. At this hotel there was also a pool, a hot tub, a sauna and a hamam (a Turkish Bath). We were so sad we were only staying for one night, and the next morning it was so hard to leave!

On Sunday we woke up and had our breakfast outside in this garden at our amazing hotel, and then at 9am we left for Baux de Provence which is a little village up in the mountains. All weekend we had been hearing about this wind called Le Mistral which is a wind that comes from the Alps. Everyone in Provence kept complaining about how bad it is, and I thought to myself how bad could wind really be. Well we found out on Sunday, it was TERRIBLE! When you were walking a gust of wind would come up and would practically blow you to the side. I almost lost my purse a few times because it would almost blow it off my shoulder! This wind was scary, it must have been at least 30 mph. Besides the wind, Baux de Provence was beautiful! It was a cute little medieval village, and we had time to just explore on our own there! A few of us went up to the Castle which was fun to go see but because it was from the Middle Ages it was pretty torn down. We were able to climb around it though and go up on top of the towers for amazing views! Then after exploring the castle we went to lunch and then we headed back to Avignon and got on our train to go home!! It was a great weekend and a fabulous last excursion! I think Provence was definitely my favorite region in France because it was so beautiful and full of cute, little towns!! I suppose technically this wasn’t my last excursion since we are going on a day excursion with our Professor Michel when he arrives but it was our last big excursion which means that our time here is quickly coming to an end. I only have two weeks left in Dijon, and while I am so excited for traveling afterwards with my mom and then to return to Seattle and see everyone, I am still sad that it is over because it has been a fantastic semester here! My host family will be the hardest to leave because I have no idea when or if I will ever see them again! At least Nathalie, our director, is coming to Tacoma in October so we will be able to see her again soon which will make leaving just a little bit easier!!



I’m off to study for my 11 FINAL EXAMS and finish a paper for our Political Science Class!

A bientôt!

Santorini - Living in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Movie

April 25: We had to wake up extremely early on Monday around 5am to be at the port by 7:30am for our ferry to Santorini. We took the metro to the port and then we followed the signs for what was supposed to be our gate for our ferry but we couldn’t find it. We ended up having to ask the police where we were supposed to go and they said the gate number was wrong on our ticket and that we had to walk to the complete other end of the port. It was a really good thing we had arrived at the port an hour before our departure because then getting lost wasn’t so stressful. However, it was extremely painful because we were carrying heavy duffle bags and purses! We finally arrived to the correct boat and got on the ferry! It was interesting to see what ferries were like in Greece because I expected them to be more like our ferries in Washington with big long comfortable seats, but instead for normal second class passengers they had limited seating inside the boat with just maybe a dozen tables and chairs and then all the rest of the seating was outside. We thankfully were able to get seats inside! I can’t imagine having to sit outside for 7.5 hours, it would have been so cold and windy and overall just not a pleasant experience! Although I can’t really say that the ferry ride was that great of an experience anyway because it was very, very tippy so my stomach did not feel so great for the majority of the ride! When we docked in Santorini and finally got off the boat I was SO happy! Also our journey from the port to the Villa we stayed at was so easy because the Villa owners picked us up and drove us there! The Villa was amazing(you can see it right above and the pool to the left) – we paid less than €20 a night for a room with two beds and a kitchenette!!! It was amazing and so nice after having stayed in hostels for the last week and a half! We had so much room to ourselves, our own bathroom, our own kitchen, and a BEAUTIFUL view from our balcony which had a table and chairs so we could eat outside; and on top of all of that we even had Wi-Fi in our rooms! After settling into our villa we went to try and find a grocery store! We didn’t think it would be too hard but it turned out to be quite the walk because apparently Easter Monday is a holiday too! We finally found a very small market open and bought some pasta and sauce and made that for dinner!

April 26: Tuesday marks the start of all my camera problems on this trip! This was the day that I lost my camera’s memory card which had all of my pictures from Santorini and Athens! Luckily, since that memory card had been full I had to put all of my pictures on Danielle’s computer and then start using one of her extra memory cards! If I hadn’t done that I would have lost all of my pictures from ¾ of my Spring Break which would have been terrible! I ended up having to buy a new memory card the next day for my camera and then a flash drive to put all of my other photos on to bring back with me to France which was quite expensive but it was worth it to still be able to have my photos! Then the next day, Wednesday, my camera battery died so from then on Danie took all the photos and I just put her photos on the flash drive too so I wouldn't be without Santorini photos since it was the place I was most looking forward to visiting!! It was quite frustrating but luckily I was able to replace everything and I’m pretty sure that buying camera stuff in France was far cheaper than buying it in France! Besides dealing with camera issues on Tuesday, we went grocery shopping so we could make our own food since Santorini is VERY touristy which also means VERY expensive!! Luckily the grocery stores were open so we could go to a big one and get everything we needed for the next three days! After going grocery shopping we then went to Kamari which is a beach town! It was a really cute, little town and we walked around for a bit and lay on the beach. It wasn’t very sunny, but the sun would come through the clouds every once in awhile so it was still nice to lie on the beach and read and relax! We also walked down to the end of the beach and saw a small church and what looked like a cave but turned out to be just an arch carved out of the rock. It was a great day and very relaxing which was exactly the point of our time in Santorini; we wanted to relax and not be going all the time like we had in Athens and like I had in Barcelona!

April 27: Wednesday was by far our busiest day in Santorini because we saw so much!!! We went on a volcano & hot springs boat cruise! To get to our boat we had to walk down to old port (in the picture above) which is over 600 steps down which wouldn’t be so bad but as you are walking down you have to avoid donkeys coming down and donkeys coming up with passengers, so it turned out to be over a 30 minute walk! As we were walking down we had already decided there was no way that we would walk up at the end and that we would take donkeys just like Lena did in the The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie. There will be a lot of references to that movie in this part of the post because we saw all the sites that are in the movie on Wednesday…it was just as amazing as they made it look in the movie! So we finally get down to our boat and about 10 minutes later we left the old port and headed for the volcano! The Volcano is very famous on Santorini because it’s eruption over 3,000 years ago was what split Santorini into multiple islands and created the Caldera between the islands! Technically we were on the island of Thira the whole time – besides of course when we visited the volcano – which is the main island of Santorini. This same eruption may have also been what destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete because the eruption caused a tsunami with waves over 250 ft high! When we stopped at the volcano we hiked up to the top to see the non-active crater and the active crater. Our guide dug a hole into the group so we could see the steam and then he handed us some of the rocks which were very warm! He also told us that the last time the volcano erupted was in 1950, and that if there is another eruption it could cause Santorini to completely sink and cease to exist. After seeing the volcano, we hiked back down and got on the boat to go to the “hot springs.” I put hot springs in quotations because they weren’t really very hot since they were connected to the Mediterranean so the cold Mediterranean would still flow in. To get to the “hot springs” we had to jump in the Mediterranean which was FREEZING because it was not a very warm day, and we then had to swim to the “hot springs” which were definitely much warmer just not as warm as they should have been. Then when the boat honked at us we had to swim back through the cold water, and before reaching the boat pretty much everyone had gone numb! We luckily made it back on the boat and then quickly changed into dry clothes! We then headed back to the old port which is in Fira, the capital of Thira, and the cruise was done. We then got on our donkeys to ride up the 600+ stairs, and it was SO much fun! It was probably one of the best experiences of my life, and something that everyone has to do if they go to Santorini! Then after the donkeys we explored Fira a little bit and looked around in some shops and got some ice cream, and then we went to Oia which is where the majority of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was filmed! This was the one town I was so excited to see because it is the town that you envision when you think of Santorini! It had the white buildings with the blue tops and was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous!!! It is also the town where most of the postcards from Santorini are from and I think we found almost every postcard picture because we walked all over the town! We also found most of the views from the movie as well! Oia is also the place where you are supposed to go for the sunset, so we stayed there until the sun was supposed to set but unfortunately instead of seeing a beautiful sunset, the sun just went behind a cloud so there weren’t really any beautiful colors! After that we took the bus home back to our Villa and we watched The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants which was great because we could see all of the places we had just been!

April 28: Thursday was a beach day, we went to Perissa which had a great beach and even though it was cloudy in the morning the sun came out very strong in the afternoon! We didn’t think we would need sunscreen because it was so cloudy so we forgot it and ended up getting a little bit sunburned! It was even so warm that I got into the water! The Mediterranean feels so much nicer when it is actually hot outside, it even feels warm! Getting in the water and leaving my flip-flops turned out to be a mistake though because a stray dog stole my flip-flop thinking it was a toy and it took 4 of us to retrieve it! That was a bit of an adventure, but he wasn’t trying to be mean, he just thought it was a toy and wanted to play! I then hid my flip-flops so the dog couldn’t find them anymore! We lay on the beach for at least 4 hours and then afterwards we went to a little café and I had my last greek salad and tsatsiki in Greece! We then bought a few touristy things and headed back to the Villa to start packing because on Friday we had to leave on the ferry!

April 29 & 30: These last two days were travel days and all the pictures are of Oia, because there were some beautiful ones I didn’t have space to include in the Oia post! So we checked out of Villa Manos in the morning on the 29th and the owner fed us breakfast for free which was so nice! We were able to leave our luggage at the Villa until they drove us down to the ferry at around 3pm! We decided to go into Fira and walk around some more and get lunch! We ate at a really cute restaurant where I had my last gyro in Greece and we were able to watch clips of the Royal Wedding! Also in this restaurant they had a wall where all the guests would draw pictures of where they were from and sign the wall! So Danie and I drew a Space Needle and Mount Rainier and then signed it! After lunch we went back to the Villa and got a ride with the owners back to the port for our ferry back to Athens! Our 7.5 hour ride this time was not so tippy which was nice, but we ended up getting back to Athens a little bit late, after midnight, which meant that we had to take a taxi back to Hostel Zeus instead of riding the metro! The taxi wasn’t so bad except he overcharged us about 10€ which was frustrating! We got to Hostel Zeus around 12:30pm and by the time we got to bed it was after 1am. We then had to wake up around 4:30am for me to get to the airport and for Danie to get to the train station! I took my taxi to the airport because it was too early to take the metro and it was supposed to be about 25€ which isn’t too bad. When we got to the airport the meter said 27€ so I handed the taxi driver a 30€ expecting change because you don’t tip in Europe and he said oh its 40€!! After getting overcharged the night before I decided to ask why, and he said “oh for the extra charges,” which I’m almost positive don’t exist but I couldn’t really argue because I don’t know the taxi system well enough in Athens so I just paid it and went to check in for my flight! I was not very happy, and it hadn’t helped that I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep! So at the airport I got some breakfast, checked in and went to my gate! Security in the Athens airport was so easy because they don’t even make you take off your shoes or coats, you can just go through! Then I waited at my gate for an hour and once I finally got on the plane I fell asleep in about 2 minutes! When I woke up before we landed I talked to the woman sitting next to me who was from Athens but she had excellent English because she had lived in Chicago for a few years while her husband went to medical school there! She was really nice and we chatted about Athens, Santorini and Paris since her and her husband were going to Paris to visit! Then we landed in Paris and I had to wait for a few hours in the airport for Cha, a friend who was flying back from Italy, so we could take the train together back to Dijon! Getting from Charles de Gaulle airport to the train station went smoothly and we then just ate some lunch there and then got on the train back to Dijon! An hour and a half later we were finally in Dijon and it felt so good to be back in Dijon again! While traveling is fun, after two weeks I was exhausted and so ready to be back in my own bed again! I then got home and had dinner with my host sister and then we watched clips of the Royal Wedding! The next day we made a chocolate cake before my host parents came home! Then on Monday I started school again, which was the one thing I wasn’t looking forward to!



So that is the end of Spring Break! I had such a great time and saw so many things!!! This next weekend I am off to Provence! Lately the weather had been beautiful, it got up to 80 today, so hopefully it stays that way for us this weekend! A bientot!

Athens - Ruins and lots and lots of pigeons

April 21 continued: From the Athens airport we took the metro to Hostel Zeus. It wasn’t a terrible hostel but definitely not as nice as our hostel in Barcelona. After checking into the hostel we went to get our ferry tickets for Santorini. On the way we passed by Syntagma square which is where the Parliament Building is and we also saw the national gardens. After picking up the ferry tickets we ate dinner at a great restaurant outside under a heat lamp. It was a fabulous dinner but afterwards we found out that the waiter had served us tap water which was not good. The tap water in Greece is fine for Greek people to drink and it doesn’t even taste that bad, but it made me sick that night and the next morning. It wasn’t a terrible sickness and it passed, but after that I was very careful to only drink bottled water. Also in Greece you can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet because their septic systems can’t handle it, so you have to throw it in a little trash bin which is by every toilet. I also learned that first day that there are sadly a lot of stray dogs in Greece, so you just see dogs everywhere and it's heartbreaking because they look so cute and I just wanted to take one home. There are also A LOT of pigeons in Athens, and pigeons generally aren't a huge problem but these pigeons try to steal your food and fly in your face because they aren't afraid of humans at all! It was pretty terrifying, and I was not a fan of them at all. The reason they aren't afraid of humans is because tourists will feed them and let them land on their arms to eat. Anyway I would say that was my least favorite part of Athens.

April 22: Today our first stop was the Acropolis which is the hill that has the Parthenon on it. As we were walking towards the Acropolis we passed by the Roman Forum and the Tower of the Winds. The Roman Forum was built after the Romans conquered Athens in 86BC. This forum was their version of an agora which means marketplace in Greek. There is also the Greek version in Athens as well called the Ancient Agora. After getting lost a few times we finally made it up to the Acropolis but it was unfortunately closed until noon because it was Good Friday. We didn’t know that Good Friday would be such a big holiday in Greece but it turns out that pretty much the whole weekend is a holiday, not just Easter Sunday. After talking to my host dad when I got home I found out that for the Greek Orthodox Church Easter is the biggest holiday and is even more important than Christmas, so it makes sense why so many places were closed so people could go to services. So since we couldn’t go to anything in Athens until noon we decided to waste some time and read about the Acropolis in Rick Steve’s Athens Book. This turned out to be a good idea because they aren’t many descriptions of the buildings once you get up to the Acropolis. Around 11:15 we made our way up to the Acropolis entrance and ended up stumbling upon Mars Hill which has an AMAZING view of all of Athens! It is also important historically because Apostle Paul preached on Mars Hill to the Athenians to try and convert them to Christianity. At noon they opened the gates to the Acropolis and it was a good thing we got there early because there were so many people waiting to go in. We also all got in for free because the Acropolis is free on holidays, so that was a nice surprise! It is a bit of a hike up to get to the Acropolis but once you get there it is breathtaking! It was so amazing to see something so old and still so well intact! As you first walk into the Acropolis you walk through the Propylaea which is the entry gate and was designed by Mnescles who also designed the Erechtheion, another building in the Acropolis. Back when it was built from 437-432 BC, this looked like a mini-Parthenon and it was decorated with a lot of statues and was very colorful. It unfortunately doesn’t look like that anymore and all that is there now are a bunch of columns. Then on your right you see the temple of Athena Nike which was built from 427-421BC and is dedicated to Athena who is the patron goddess of Athens. Athena Nike is the Athena of victory and this temple was built to celebrate the victory over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon, and it was supposed to help the Athenians continue to be victorious over the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War. It is amazing how well intact this temple still is today, it is actually probably the most intact building on the Acropolis. After passing the temple of Athena Nike, you can see the Beulé Gate which was a ceremonial doorway built by the Romans around 267AD. During Roman times this was the official entrance to the Acropolis, and it looks similar to what it would have looked like back then as well which is probably partly because it is newer. Then as you make your way up the stairs you can see the Erechtheion which was built as the home of the mythical King Erechthonius who founded Athens. This is also said to be the site where Athena and Poseidon fought for naming rights of the city, and so both gods are worshipped in the Erechtheion. It has a porch of the Caryatids (ladies) which is very famous and they are in the process of restoring them right now. Then the final and of course most famous monument is the Parthenon which is the building that everyone wants to see when they go to Athens. I was a little bit disappointed at first because it was under construction, but then I found out it is always under construction because they want to make sure that it doesn’t get any more damaged than it already has been. Most of the damage to the Parthenon was from a bomb dropped by the Venetians in a war in Athens in 1687. Even though it is in ruins it is still quite incredible that it still has as much as it does considering it was completed nearly 2,500 years ago. The Parthenon served the cult of Athena Parthenos (which is Athena the Virgin) and it functioned as a temple and also as the treasury of Athens. It was completed in less than a decade (c.450-440BC) and all the sculptural decorations were finished by 432BC. The main part that you can’t see anymore is the sculptural decorations, there are a few left, but the majority of the sculptures are gone. However the sculptures that are missing you can find in the New Acropolis Museum because they have done archeological excavations and found them. The thought that went into the design of the Parthenon is also quite incredible because they had to use optical illusions to make it work. The architects knew that a long, flat baseline on the Parthenon would make it look like it was sagging and since it was such an important building they wanted it to look upright. They also knew that if they installed perfectly parallel columns then they would appear to be bending away from each other. So to make the Parthenon perfect they made the base arch up in the middle, and made the columns tilt inwards by having the columns fatter at the bottom. The architects may have also used the “golden ration” which means that for example the West façade just happens to fit into a rectangle 1.618 times wider than it is high. The result of all of this was a perfectly designed building! It was amazing to me that the architects in Ancient Greece 2,500 years ago had so much knowledge and took it all into consideration and still built the Parthenon in less than a decade! It was really quite incredible. After the Parthenon, we exited the Acropolis and saw two other main ruins further down the hill. The first one was Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This “ruin” is in really good shape because after being destroyed by invading Herulians in the 1850s, it was reconstructed in the 1950s. So it is not very old, but to preserve it they do not allow tourists into it. The original Odeon was built by Herodes Atticus in 161AD and served as a place for musical performances. We then visited the Theatre of Dionysus which was incredible because we were actually allowed to sit inside it!! During Athen’s Golden Age – around 450BC – this was the theater where Sophocles and others watched their plays being performed. During the time of Alexander the Great, stone seating was added – 342-326BC – and then during Roman times, the theater was actually connected to the Odeon. After seeing all of this I was so amazed, it is incredible that we are able to see things so old because they were well preserved enough to still exist today. It was also amazing because seeing castles in France at the beginning of my time in France was so astonishing because they are so much older than anything we have in the U.S. but then seeing things that were built more than a thousand years before those castles make even France look young. After seeing everything we grabbed a gyro for lunch and then went to the New Acropolis Museum. This museum was just completed in 2007 so it is very new and surprisingly inexpensive, as students we were able to get tickets for €3! Before you walk into the museum you walk over a glass floor where you can see ruins underneath it which is a great introduction to the museum that hold all the ruins they have found that used to be on the Acropolis. The most interesting part of the museum is on the top floor where there is a movie of the Parthenon with its history and the process of reconstruction. There is also a part of the movie where they have an image of the Parthenon and what it would have looked like when it was first built with all the missing statues in place. After watching the movie we then walked around the model of the Parthenon on the top floor where they put all the parts of missing statues in place where they would be on the real Parthenon if they still had been there. It was amazing to see the statues that they have found, they haven’t found any complete statues so many had missing heads or legs or torsos, but even so many of the statues were complete enough you could tell what you were looking at. Also thanks to the movie where you saw the statues regenerated on screen you could really tell what you were supposed to be looking at. As you are walking around the Parthenon model you can see the metopes which are right under the triangular pediments. The west metopes are the mythical battle of the Athenians battling the Amazons, then the metope on the longer side was of the Trojan war, another metope was of Centaurs fighting, and the fourth metope was they think a wedding scene. You can also see the two triangular pediments. One is of Athena and Poseidon competing to be Athens patron god. Athena brought an olive tree to give to Athens, and Poseidon brought water. Athena ended up winning which is why olives and olive oil are so important in Greece today. The other triangular pediment is the Birth of Athena whichw as when Zues had a terrible headache and he asked Hephaistos to relieve it, so Hephaistos split Zeus’ head open and out came Athena. After finishing our walk around the Parthenon model we were finished with the museum and headed back to the hostel, did a little bit of shopping, and then went and got some dinner. I had souvlaki for dinner which is basically like a kebab with meat on a skewer! It was delicious!!!

April 23: On Saturday we started at the Panathenaic Stadium, which is the Olympic Stadium in Athens. We thought we were just going to go in the stadium, look around, take some pictures and then leave but it turned out that with our €1.50 ticket we also got an audio guide to tell us all about the stadium which was really great! I was very surprised how good the stadium looked, but then I found out why from the audio guide; it was reconstructed in the 1800s because King George wanted to make it look better. There are still parts of the old stadium, a few statues and slabs of rock, but the majority of it was completely remodeled. We were able to go everywhere in the stadium, even on the track! We also got to sit in the two sets of king and queens chairs. The first ones were built at the head of the stadium in 1896 because at the time that was the best seat in the stadium, but then the events on the stadium began to take place more in the center of the track and so they moved the king and queen’s seats to the middle of one of the longer sides of the track in 1908. I also learned about why a Marathon is called a Marathon; a soldier had to run from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to deliver news and the distance between Marathon and Athens is 26 miles. We then moved to the part of the stadium that had the Athlete’s entrance and we were able to go all the way up into the tunnel up until there was a gate which was closed that went to the Athlete’s changing rooms. Then we went all the way up to the top of the stadium because there is an excellent view of the Acropolis from there, and I remembered seeing this exact view of the Acropolis on TV when the Olympic Games were in Athens in 2004. Afterwards we climbed back down and took pictures on the medal stand! It was so much fun, and I’m so glad we went to the stadium because we were thinking of not going but it turned out to be one of my favorite places in Athens. We then went to Syntagma Square to take pictures with the guards and see the changing of the guards. It was a really great ceremony because you could get so much closer than you can in London. The guards wore traditional outfits which were pretty funny and also looked extremely thick; I’m not sure how they survive in the summer especially because they have to stand in the sun for so long! After the changing of the guard we tried to go to the National Archaeological Museum but it had closed early for Orthodox Saturday. It was frustrating because we had looked on the website and on the website it said it was open on the Saturday before Easter and said nothing about a change in the hours! So we just ended up just taking some pictures in front of it, getting some ice cream and heading back to our hostel. That night we went at 11:15pm to the candlelight service at the head of the Greek Orthodox Church. There are so many people that they had to have the service outside but it was still an amazing ceremony to participate in. The light that is on the priest’s candle comes all the way to Greece from the Church of Nativity in Jerusalem which is the site where they believe Jesus was born. The first place where the light goes in Greece is to this church and then the light spreads to all the churches in Athens and then out to the rest of Greece. At the end of the ceremony they spread the light to all the people that were at the service, and then when the clock stroke midnight everyone started to chant “Christos Anesti” and then “Alihos Anesti,” which means “Christ is risen, Christ is risen indeed.” That was about the only phrase I knew in the whole service because it was in the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Then soon after midnight everyone leaves to walk home, and most people kept their candles lit which we thought was probably cause they would then bring the light back to their house and light their candles in their house with “Christ’s light.” The whole ceremony was very impressive and a great thing to be able to experience. My host dad said when I got home that after being in Rome, Athens is probably one of the most interesting places to be on Easter, so I’m really glad I was able to experience it.


April 24: Easter Sunday wasn’t very busy because everything was closed so it was a nice place to relax. It’s also the perfect day for me to add pictures to this post from the guard ceremony that I couldn’t fit on the other ones! This was my first Easter away from home which was a little bit hard but we still had a good time. We woke up late and ate some Easter bread and some chocolate we had bought for ourselves the day before. Then at around 4pm we went to God’s Restaurant which was a restaurant recommended by Rick Steve’s, MTV Europe and a whole bunch of other travel companies. It was so good! We had greek salad, lamb which was cooked on a stick over a fire pretty much right next to our table, ouzo, and baklava. The food was absolutely amazing and the waiters were great!! They thought it was hilarious that Danielle could speak Greek and that I couldn’t, well and it looked worse too because she would order first in Greek which would raise their expectations, and then I would have to order in English. I am glad that they thought it was funny though and weren’t offended; one said something along the lines of, “Even if you can’t speak Greek, you are still a beautiful girl so it’s ok.” Since they liked us so much we ended up with two different waiters attending to us the whole time, one of them came by and asked both of us our names, and after he would pass by and say, “Beautiful Kathryn.” They were so funny and so nice! Then after our meal they gave us another kind of Greek alcohol to try for free! All in all it was a great Easter dinner! We then went back to our hostel and started packing all of our things back up again because we were leaving for Santorini the next morning very early!

More on Santorini – the last part of Spring Break – to come soon!