So my camera's battery died 10 hours into my journey, so I apologize for the lack of pictures here...
Moving on with it, Athens was AMAZING. As much as I liked Rome, I'm pretty sure I liked Greece more. Let's start at the beginning:
Landed in Athens, after a stressful bus ride downtown/eventual taxi ride, we ended up in our hotel. In the Penthouse. Yep, my dad and I enjoyed the top floor of an Athens hotel with a wrap-around balcony. It was pretty awesome except that we were in the "alternative" section of town. By that I basically just mean that the people around were really Hot Topic-y and shooting heroin. My dad and I were given the opportunity to see not one, but TWO heroin addicts shooting up in two separate door stoops. It was freaky.
Anyway, that night we went to a traditional Greek restaurant and I ate the most tender lamb I've ever had in my life and some really nice Halva made from Semonila, different from what we usually have in the states (although later in the trip we did get to try some halva like what we usually have). The next morning we got up bright and early for a tour around Athens; we went to the Acropolis (the big hill where the Parthenon and temples are) and then a really fantastic museum with the sculptures that had been pillaged during the dark ages from those temples. It was fascinating!
After another traditional Greek lunch (kebabs and spinach pie!) we headed down the stunning grecian coast to the Temple of Poseidon. This is the part of Greece I absolutely fell in love with: coast. It was so beautiful, you can see the islands in the background of the clear cerulean Mediterranean Sea. And the sun shined the whole day and it was warm...so wonderful compared to the cold, dreary constant state of almost-rain here in Bonn. My dad and I hiked around the temple, it was built on a small peninsula with rocky cliffs overlooking the sea, which lent itself to easy/fun/beautiful small hikes.
When we got back to Athens proper, we ascended the tallest 'hill' of Athens. Yes, Athens too was built on 7 hills, but when they say hills it's not like it was in Rome, these hills were more huge piles of natural marble. The view was spectacular, you could see the Acropolis with the Sea and the islands in the background and the sun setting over the city. That and the view at sunrise overlooking Israel from the top of Masada were two of the most impressive vistas I have ever seen in my life.
The next day we took it pretty easy, I really wanted to go to an island...so we went to Aegina, the prettiest island closest to Athens. I loved it, we dipped our toes into the icy Mediterranean (that's another body of water for my dad!) and enjoyed Kalamari as the sun set over the water. (Well, I enjoyed Kalamari, my dad ate some fish that was too salty, but hey). We took the ferry back to Athens and then early the next morning flew home to Germany!
Then, as we were walking back to the Hauptbahnhof from lunch, my dad made the astute observation that Angela Merkel was in town that evening to support a candidate for the upcoming elections here in North Rhein Westphalia. So, we met up again shortly after I dropped all my travel stuff back home to see the Chancellor speak! It was cool and I understood most of it. I think really the best part of it was that it encouraged me to look up more political stuff about Germany and inform myself about which party I would belong to if I could vote and so forth. Turns out I'm a strong supporter of "Die Grünen" which is a left-centrist party here. What's really interesting also is that the most conservative party here (the CDU) is to the left of our most liberal party in the US. Things to think about...
So I need to be done with this procrastination, I have class soon and still have some homework to do. My dad left this morning (which was really sad! I'll miss him :( ) and then it's back to business here in Bonn.
Bis bald!
Moving on with it, Athens was AMAZING. As much as I liked Rome, I'm pretty sure I liked Greece more. Let's start at the beginning:
Landed in Athens, after a stressful bus ride downtown/eventual taxi ride, we ended up in our hotel. In the Penthouse. Yep, my dad and I enjoyed the top floor of an Athens hotel with a wrap-around balcony. It was pretty awesome except that we were in the "alternative" section of town. By that I basically just mean that the people around were really Hot Topic-y and shooting heroin. My dad and I were given the opportunity to see not one, but TWO heroin addicts shooting up in two separate door stoops. It was freaky.
After another traditional Greek lunch (kebabs and spinach pie!) we headed down the stunning grecian coast to the Temple of Poseidon. This is the part of Greece I absolutely fell in love with: coast. It was so beautiful, you can see the islands in the background of the clear cerulean Mediterranean Sea. And the sun shined the whole day and it was warm...so wonderful compared to the cold, dreary constant state of almost-rain here in Bonn. My dad and I hiked around the temple, it was built on a small peninsula with rocky cliffs overlooking the sea, which lent itself to easy/fun/beautiful small hikes.
When we got back to Athens proper, we ascended the tallest 'hill' of Athens. Yes, Athens too was built on 7 hills, but when they say hills it's not like it was in Rome, these hills were more huge piles of natural marble. The view was spectacular, you could see the Acropolis with the Sea and the islands in the background and the sun setting over the city. That and the view at sunrise overlooking Israel from the top of Masada were two of the most impressive vistas I have ever seen in my life.
The next day we took it pretty easy, I really wanted to go to an island...so we went to Aegina, the prettiest island closest to Athens. I loved it, we dipped our toes into the icy Mediterranean (that's another body of water for my dad!) and enjoyed Kalamari as the sun set over the water. (Well, I enjoyed Kalamari, my dad ate some fish that was too salty, but hey). We took the ferry back to Athens and then early the next morning flew home to Germany!
So I need to be done with this procrastination, I have class soon and still have some homework to do. My dad left this morning (which was really sad! I'll miss him :( ) and then it's back to business here in Bonn.
Bis bald!
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