Fall Break: Greece, the country that stole my heart!

After spending some time in Barcelona, me and my four girl friends headed over to Athens.  When I decided that I wanted to study abroad last year I said over and over again that I wanted to go to Greece while I was abroad.  I wasn't even going to let the state of their economy keep me from going there.  I don't really know what it was about Greece that always made me want to go, but it was something, and I'm so glad I went.  We woke up early again and left Barcelona.  The flight wasn't bad at all and I was beyond happy when we landed.  Although it was pouring when we got there I wasn't letting the rain bring me down at all.  We took the metro and got to our hostel and immediately went back out to get some Greek food.  I've never had Greek food before, so I was completely new to everything.  My first meal, I fell in love.  I had a Gyro, which is obviously well known as being Greek.  It was amazing.  I can't even explain it!  My mouth waters just thinking about it.  I also tried tzasiki, which is a cucumber yogurt dipping sauce.  It sounds disgusting but it was amazing.  The restaurant had an amazing feel and we had a great time.  We also go Greek desserts, baklava and kantafi, which were both really good!!  The wait staff were so nice to us and we all had a great time laughing and eating amazing Greek food.  After dinner we headed back to the hostel to sit at the rooftop bar where we overlooked the Acropolis and the Parthenon!  I couldn't believe the view when we got up there, it made everything hit me all over again that I was finally in Greece!  It was an amazing first half of a day in Athens and I was totally looking forward to the rest of our trip.

Gyro!

Tzasiki!

Kantafi

Baklava

The next day we woke up and went to adventure around the area that our hostel was in.  There was a really cool market that we had passed when we first got there so we decided to go back and check that out.  It was such a cool market with so many souvenir stores and authentic Greek things.  I got a really pretty Greek ring and a leather wallet which were both really great purchases for me! Around lunch time we went and got some more amazing Greek food.  I was literally a kid in a candy store when it came to meals, because I just loved the gyros and tzasiki!  After that we went back to our hostel so we could meet up with the rest of our friends that were coming that day!  When everyone got there we were all so excited to see each other.  We went back out to adventure a bit and got a big family dinner!  That night we went back to the rooftop bar and hung out with everyone.  The bar ended up being a great place for us throughout the trip.

Our view of the Acropolis!

The next day we all got up and made our way to the top of the acropolis.  That was such an amazing sight.  It didn't take long to get to the top which was good and when we finally got to the top we saw an amazing view of Athens.  After spending some time at the top of the Acropolis and taking our fair share of pictures, we headed back down the mountain, got some lunch and headed to the first Olympic Stadium!  That was really cool as well!  There weren't that many people there so we were able to fool around and have fun while we were in the stadium.  Me and two of my friends even had our own mini olympic games! After the stadium we hung around in Athens a bit then went and got dinner and headed back to the hostel.

The whole group!

Olympic Stadium!

Friday was our last day in Athens and our entire break too, and thank god, it was the best day by far.  Our hostel offered day cruises to a Greek island, which we had known about before we left, so we decided to book it.  We woke up Friday morning and headed to the boat.  When we got there it was so cool.  We knew we were going to have a great day.  The day was amazing we all laid out on the top of the boat, talked to the people who owned the boat and just hung out in the sun.  I don't think we could've asked for anything more.  When we got closer to the island the people running the boat put the anchor down and let everyone jump into the sea.  I stayed on the boat but it was so much fun to watch all my friends jump in and have such a good time.  After a while we went to the island for some lunch and got to walk around and sit on the beach a bit.  We got back on the boat after about an hour and headed back to Athens.  On our way back everyone was relaxing and we got to see the sun set over the water.  It was gorgeous.  It made me fall in love with Greece even more than I already was.  When we got back to land we made our way back to the center of Athens and got some dinner and went back to the hostel to pack up and get ready to head back to London the next day.

Sunset!

I'm forever grateful that I got to go to Greece when I had the chance, but I'm definitely making a promise to myself that I will go back.  Everything about it was amazing to me.  The food, the people, the atmosphere, everything!  I know that there is a lot of negative things going on behind the scenes in Greece, and unfortunately I did see a little bit of it, but I don't think that that will ever take away from the amazing time that I had!

When we got back to London it was absolutely freezing and it made me miss Greece immediately.  I've got about six more weeks here with two more trips and a visit from my family to look forward to! It's starting to get really bittersweet knowing that my semester abroad is going to start winding down.  I can definitely say that I'm finally at the stage where I don't want to go home!  Luckily, I still have more time! :)