The Acropolis

The Acropolis 

Greece is known for it’s countless acropolises (or is it acropoli?), the most popular being the one that sits a top a mountain overlooking the city of Athens.  There is an acropolis in every major city and it usually consists of some type of building that sits on top of the highest mountain in the city.  These were prime places used if the city was ever under attack because it is the hardest part to seize, naturally.  As you can imagine, the view was stunning!

 It was wild to see things that I have only seen on post cards or on slides in history classes in person.  Although it was truly amazing to see these timeless pieces of history, the fun had only just begun. 

My Random Greek lady-friend

In our exhausted, over heated, overwhelmed, state of delirium a group of us decided to take on the identity of professional photo bombers, making it our mission to “enhance” any and every picture we encountered.  The positions we practiced varied from different takes on the original Sasquatch walk, to awkward faces, to a solid “two thumbs up” stance behind a couple posed holding hands as if they had just won a dance competition. 
 Also as a part of this top-secret mission, we decided to take as many pictures as we could with random people.  My friend Nicki took an amazing picture with an extremely attractive Irish man with a beautiful accent while I sat extremely close to an old Greek woman on a bench as “nonchalantly” as I possibly could. I took up my own personal goal to see how many pictures I could take for other people and got up to eight. The situation was definitely a memorable one and made all of us laugh so hard.  I am sure I have said this a million times, but I honestly could not have asked for a better group of people to share these memories with.

The amazing Greek style food

            After an hour or so of carrying on this mischief, we met or group at the bottom of the acropolis and headed back into down town Athens.  One cannot truly appreciate the height of the acropolis until you hike up and down it that is for sure. When we hit the bottom the Kaplans asked us a very difficult question, if we wanted to eat a lunch that was on them at a typical Greek restaurant, or if we wanted to continue walking in the blistering heat with growling tummies. 

As you can imagine, we took up the offer of indulging in a free meal.  We had no idea what was about to hit our taste buds.  Our table of six got to choose 14 dishes to share, do not judge us, they were appetizer sized.  This is the traditional way to share a meal with your family for Greeks.  We chose fried cheese, calamari, Greek salad (that no one touched haha), two different hummus type dips, beans, meatballs, tziki sauce, sausage, fries, dolmades, pork, mousaka, and fried zucchini.   Not going to lie, it was probably some of the most amazing tasting food I have ever eaten.  After this tasty stop we headed into the “downtown” portion of Athens to the flea market that is open on Sundays.  All I could think about was how much my little brother, Dallas, would love being in this environment.  There were so many cool pieces taking over the street, all with different personalities and stories to tell. 

After wandering around for a good hour or so, it was finally time to head home.  Unfortunately, I got lost… again.  I feel like I should have accepted the fact, by now, that I am just no good with directions and am bound to get lost anytime I stray away from the norm. A group of four of us got on the correct metro, got off on the correct stop, got on the correct bus, and got of on the completely wrong bus stop ten or fifteen blocks away from the stop we should have gotten off at.    Being the bright college students we are, we figured it would be in our best interest to walk to our dorms, not knowing the distance we had in store for us.  Long story short, we hiked up and down streets using our internal compass to direct us on our journey, finally stopped after 20 minutes and decided to wait for a bus due to the fact that we had seen three or four pass us in our time walking.  Once we found the bus stop, we waited for another twenty or thirty minutes, which felt like hours, for the bus to finally come.  I may be acting a little dramatic but just give me a couple sentences to rant.  After hiking up to the acropolis, around the Parthenon, down the acropolis (which remember is the highest point in the city of Athens), around the flea market, and through shops, the last thing I wanted to do was walk twenty blocks in the blazing hot sun to get back to my dorm.  I was running out of water and the little water I had left was warm.  I was desperate for something, tried to eat an orange out of the trees that grows in the middle of the streets (which is a whole story in itself), only to find that it was bitter and full of seeds, and on top of that a cat kept meowing from behind a bush the entire time we were waiting for the bus.  Ok, sorry but I just needed to give you the full effect of my experience.  At least I know that in the two or three times I have gotten lost, I still managed to find my way back.  I hate admitting this but that night I indulged in my roommates fundelina (knock off brand of nutella) with the biggest spoon our dorm had to offer.  After all, I figured I deserved it after walking more that ten or eleven miles that day. 

My amazing room mates

One of the best parts of this entire trip, hands down, is my roommates.  No matter what kind of day we have had, we some how always find a way to build each other up.  I cannot think of one time we have been together that I have not been in tears from laughing so hard about the memories we have shared together.  That Sunday night was no exception.  I’m not sure if it was the fifteen hour day or the fact that we had been in the sun for a good portion of that time but that was the hardest I laughed in a really long time.  We kept recalling events from earlier that day and reminding each other of the hilarious photo bombs or conversations that were shared.  This trip has really taught me spontaneity (as ironic as that sounds) and how to live life to the fullest.  We jokingly tell each other “YOLO” as a reminder that we only have one life to live so why not throw yourself a dance party or talk to complete strangers. I think John Lennon says it best: “Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans”