Athens

Dinner right across from the Acropolis. I literally ate this meal every single day in Greece. 

My view walking back to my hostel the first night. Just the Parthenon, NBD

View from my morning run.

Stadium where the first olympic games, and first marathon were held

Just some random pieces that were excavated from ancient Greece and the acropolis

The Acropolis

Parthenon

The temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus in Olympia with the Acropolis in the background

Temple of Zeus. This is just freestanding in the middle of the city

I had an early flight out of Milan for Athens so I got up super early and headed to the Metro. I had to go from the Duomo station to the Central station and then catch a bus to the airport so I left myself plenty of time to get there. I had looked up travel time from the central station to the airport and it was about 50 minutes, however when I looked it up the night before I saw 20 minutes so that’s what I planned for. The bus ride was SO long and I thought for sure I was going to miss my flight. My plane left at 9:40 and I didn’t even get to the airport until about 8:30. Fortunately the security is terrible in Milan and I got through super quick. I flew into Belgrade, Serbia on the smallest, most uncomfortable plane of all time. Once I got there I quickly found my gate, where there was extra security just to get into the gate. (Probably because we were sharing a gate with a flight going into Abu Dhabi.) I had read reviews the night before that my airline, Air Serbia was terrible, always running late, losing luggage etc. so I was preparing for the worst. Our departure time came and went and we still didn’t even have a plane. They didn’t make an announcement or anything, we all just sat at the gate for an extra 2 hours and waited. I didn’t have wifi and couldn’t even wander around the airport because I had already been through security. It was a painful couple of hours. Finally, we made it on the plane and I slept pretty much the entire way to Athens. Once I got there I thankfully found my luggage right away and headed out to find my hostel. I had to take the metro, and I didn’t know what ticket to buy or which train to take and the lady at the ticket desk was less than helpful so I made my best guess, took my chances and got on the train without a ticket. I got lucky and it was the right train and they didn’t check for tickets! (Sorry Greece, I owe you 8 euro). I had to switch lines at one of the stops and this guy saw me looking at a map and came over and gave me directions. I took the train for one more stop, followed his directions and walked directly to my hostel! I really liked my hostel, the people that worked there were super nice and helpful and I was literally two minutes from the Acropolis. I dropped off my stuff and headed out to explore around the Acropolis. It was about 7:00 so it was too late to go inside but it’s in the cutest little area, full of shops and restaurants and there were a ton of people out walking around, shopping, and eating dinner. I wandered for a little bit and then got dinner at this super cute café across from the Acropolis. Everyone was so so nice and the food was really good!

            I decided to book a tour for the next day so I could hear some of the history instead of just wandering around on my own and I really wish I wouldn’t have. It was about $85 and I pretty much went off on my own the entire time anyway. They took us to the Patheolithic Stadium where the first Olympics and Marathon was held which I really liked. Then we saw some of the old palaces, the university and a few other structures. Then we went to the Acropolis museum ,which was built over an old Athenian city. I guess they didn’t even know the ruins were there until they started excavating to build this museum, so they built the museum right over it, but with a glass floor so you could see all the ruins, it was pretty cool. After the museum we headed into the Acropolis where we saw the Parthenon.  It sits on a hilltop that overlooks all of Athens and it was super cool to finally see! After the tour, I wandered around on my own, I went back to the stadium to spend a little more time there and I also saw Haideon’s Arch and the Temple of Zeus in Olympia. I didn’t know much about the Temple of Zeus but it really was pretty amazing. After walking around for a few hours, I went back to the hostel and hung out with one of the guys in my room, Rhys, who is from Australia. We chatted for a bit and then got cleaned up and headed to dinner by the acropolis. It was a good night, and I have met some really good people!