Athens: Day 4

First up was another lecture at the Hellenic American Union, this time with a famous Greek poet who teaches at an American college in Athens. He spoke mostly about culture and writings; Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, etc. I’m thinking about doing my research paper on Greek culture portrayed in the media …

Then we walked 45 minutes over to the Panathenaikon stadium, built in the late 1800s for the first modern Olympic games. The opening ceremony and archery events in 2004 were also held there. It was incredibly large and had the five Olympic rings at its head – pretty cool!

We continued another 30 minutes into the small village that sits above and behind the stadium. It is very small and reminded me a lot of Italy; you forget you’re in a huge city like Athens. We ate at a taverna and had the best meal so far – Greek salad (of course), cheese pies, meatballs, tzatziki, bread, shots of raki, and watermelon. Then we stopped at the bakery across the street and I got a big piece of baklava to take back to the hotel. It was without a doubt the best I’ve ever had; juicy, sweet, and just amazing!

Sarah and I came back to nap before the night’s festivities, but overslept by an hour and fifteen minutes! We scrambled around but managed to get ready on time. About ten of us walked down the street and got gyros again from the take out place. They’re just so good!

At 8:15, we headed over to the acropolis for a Greek music festival in the Herodes Atticus theatre. The music, a full orchestra, was not so great, but the setting was fantastic! It was an incredibly high and steep seating arrangement, with the Parthenon all lit up to our left, and a view out on Athens in front of us. But at one point there was a bat flying around … ah!

Our guide, Niki, met up with us there and her friend, a local Athens news anchor, came along as well. One of the other girls and I got a picture with her and were chatting about how she likes her job and everything. We went straight to Plaka and sat down for some drinks with the whole group, including our professor. Two glasses of wine and a cone of gelato later, we transferred to the bar across the square that has the great sangria. Everyone started to really have a good time…

Apparently a huge, bright red spider crawled up one of the girls’ arms at the table. AHHH. I freaked out when she told me it was a tarantula. I’m searching for a spider killer in the group who will protect me!

At like 1 AM we were convinced by some guy to go to his club and walked in to find it almost empty except for a couple American girls and maybe five Greek boys. We danced to American music for probably an hour and just had a blast. It was completely random but really fun, and kind of a good workout. We were all disgusting and sweaty! Somehow we found our way back to the hotel, but didn’t go to bed until 4 AM.