But I did Acropol-this...and now I'm gonna Acropol-THAT

BACK to Athena: Oh yes. So after a good night’s rest I was up and on my way down to breakfast….which was really good. This hotel did fairly well on the breakfast-end of everything thing….we all ate entirely TOO much, but we did not mind at all. SOON after we ate it was BUS TOUR time. SWEET! Ok Let’s have an A & B real quick, if you’re not interested just C your way pass the side-note, but who loves side notes? I LOVE side notes…ERGO!!

Walking:
-I love walking everywhere
-I don’t’ love being tired
-I love seeing everything and getting lost
-I don’t love my feet filling me from days on end, no seriouslyà my feet have become flat from walking too much. You think I’m joking? BAHAHA not at all! I don’t get it either but it has happened. Either way, walking=exercise=eating badly really isn’t so bad=winner=me. Math equations without numbers have never made so much sense!

The bust tour around the city of Athens was good. Athens was not what I was expecting. Even though I had been there before…briefly, but I had been there. From what I had experienced which was Athens in the dark in the late, late evening complete exhausted and uncaring about what was around me. I was pleasantly surprised that it was what it was. I do like Athens, I don’t love it, I am really thankful that I live in Thessaloniki because I think it is way better, but Athens isn’t so bad. Especially since we got to see so many things in a short amount of time. The bus tour took us to the Olympic Stadium which was cool I had been here before. Our friends we met from the Santorini trip/ put us up for a few hours before catching our train home live right past here…which is really neat. The stadium was being set up for the Athens Marathon for Sunday. The stadium is officially called the Kallimarmaro stadium. Athens obviously built a new stadium for the more recent Olympics, but this stadium is the site where the original panathenaic stadium was built in 330-329 BC…UM HOLY OLD! They said on the tour that it was reconstructed for the gladiator events and then rebuilt again for the panathenaic Games in 144 AD….woah. Really intense right? AND THEN in 1895 they completely restored the stadium for the first modern Olympics…and THAT is exactly what we saw. They start the fire thing every year for the Olympics right here…and then they just run with it….so cool. The bus tour took us to see more of Athens…not too much more because we were headed toward the ACROPOLIS. I WAS SO excited for this……not just the acropolis or this…but ACROPOTHIS…clever? Haha. SO WE walk up to the acropolis, and actually there are a ton of other important Grecian structures in this general area. We entered the area through the Propylaia which was basically the formal entrance to the Acropolis, the Beule Gate was the first entrance into the Acropolis but they had it blocked off. Which made sense…especially if the Propylaia was a perfectly fine entrance…. and surrounding that was the Temple of Athena Nike. I thought this was really neat. As we were walking our guide gave us a lot of really interesting information…I mean what is up with the whole Olive tree thing anyway? WELL obviously Athens was named after the Goddess Athena. What happened was that when the people were going to name their city two Olympian Gods wanted dibs and to be the ultimate protector. So there you have Poseidon vs. Athena. The people decided and by the people I mean their king, I think his name was Cecrops? Or something like it…but he made a competition for the God’s and who ever offered the most valuable gift to the city would be the winner. Poseidon did something with his trident or something powerful and “God”-like and he created a spring. BUT THEN Athena gave the people of Athens an Olive tree to be planted there…ergo, she won the competition. AND the very first olive tree is still chilling and hanging out on the Acropolis. It’s right next to the Porch of the Caryatids ohh I don’t’ know, if you want to know more about it…just google it…it’s hard for me to remember EVERYTHING. So the guide started to bore me so I decided to go off on my own…OH LOOK…it’s the Parthenon….hmm…so cool. I also saw the Theatre of Herodes Atticus…they kind of restored it and I’m pretty sure they still use it for performances. This was SO COOL….to actually see what I have learned in too many of my classes. I just really appreciated the history that I was walking on…….clearly haha I appreciated it with every hop, skip, and JUMP. We had a lot of fun at the Acropolis….AND it was crazy hot out…I don’t get it!

Soon after we AcropolTHAT ok that was a weak attempt….meh…anyway haha we walked through Ancient Agora to get to the central plaka. Ancient Agora was SO cool, and really beautiful and heavily supervised. They had old women EVERYWHERE telling us not to do things…listen, photo opportunities cannot be missed….they are old stones…and things we understand that but seriously….even the grass cannot be touched? REALLY!? However, walking through ancient agora was so cool. It was originally a market-place which was the center of ancient Athens. This is where the philosophers hung out and were philosophical….and were also executed here….poor Socrates…we was indicted and executed in the state prison…which is one of the buildings in this area…couldn’t even begin to tell you which one….but this area also housed the schools…so hey Plato…you walked here….and Aristotle…you walked here too….WHAT!? I think the coolest part of Ancient Agora was definitely the Hephaisteion. This was a really awesome temple was known as the Theseion…we didn’t get much information on it other than it is the best preserved building in ancient agora….I thought it was really cool anyway….hmm

ENTER Central Plaka…SOO many people, too many people....the streets were SO busy and filled with little stands, shops, and tavernas. They shuffled ALL of us into a taverna to the tip-top floor and gave us gyros….ok this whole part of the afternoon was a confusion and just a ton of turmoil….they really need to separate the SAB students from Nu-in students…there were just too many of us....they were stressed, the taverna people were stressed…and I’m over immature freshman who need to be in an actual college there first semester to learn what is up….being abroad is NOT SMART. Anyway we all just kind of wanted to get out of there….so us peaced-out and proceeded to get lost. I just love hanging with Kaci, Alexa, and H-jay….so fun…slash never a dull moment…..and we all just are interested in the same things…I didn’t hate it…..woo…in which case we found some GREAT scarves for a GREAT deal…not to mention some other great things. We found all these great things from this Aussie-Greek guy. Ok please, think about this. Australia…and Greece….Australian accent….Greek accent….WHAT!? HE spoke awesomely. Basically it was the best one-two combo of hey I know English and talk awesome by default and hey I’m Greek so let’s just infuse them together.

Athens was crazy American-ized….everyone knew some sort of English…this was really different for us…at least for me it was…I’ve been trying so hard to get this Greek thing down because they just don’t understand English here….so I’ve been doing well…but coming here it was like…you huh…you understand me? I don’t think I would have liked studying in Athens…I really like the fact that I had to learn a language to get around here….I don’t know it makes my experience that much more….intense? Memorable? I’m not sure…one of the two maybe….but then again I have yet to visit an English speaking country abroad…so when that happens…I wonder if my perceptions will change about being in a non-English speaking country…hmm….we will see…Ireland is NEXT Weekend….so exciting….But yes, YAY Greece American-style….

Dear English language and American people,
I miss you. Save your breath…I can’t wait to talk to you
<3 Heather

Right then, so we found even more to look, see, and DO. BUT we were starting to get tired….however we did not head back until we of course found some more shopping. THIS was really fun. ALEXA just had to find some new make-up. So we went into the body shop and the next thing we knew, she was getting a full-blown make-over by some dude….he was having a FIELD day…umà awesome…just to check make-up out…you don’t even have to get it…and they don’t just half of your face, you get the whole thing for free…DONE! It was really fun to see her get a whole new face...ha-ha ohhh GREECE you are funny sometimes…so after that stop we went into this little shop area and Kaci fel in love with a store that screamed her first, last, and middle names….vintage is for lovers and Kaci is vintage beyond words…she’s timeless really haha…BUT REALLY this store had SERIOUSLY fabulous accessories that were BLINGING and ringing…and well we had to leave her in there for a few minutes..maybe an hour…haha…this store really was cool…and so while Kaci had a conniption H-jay, Alexa, and I went into the Hondos center…HOLY MOTHER OF PRODUCTS…no really…it’s like 5 or 6 floors….HUGE floors with isles among isles, shelves among shelves just filled with hair products, sprays, brushes, make-up, nail stuff…no literally, EVERYTHING was here in MASS quantities! MEANING kboo is going to FLIP when she sees this….so awesome….To be honest, I spent more of my time in Athens analyzing what Kathleen and I were going to do when she got here…I have a countdown. It is very impressive you know. I’m more excited for her than IRELAND at this point. WHAT? It’s like get the motherland trip out of the way and get her into my life RIGHT NOW!!! Not Joking. I am excited for Ireland, but you have no idea how excited I am for her to get here. Everyone…and I mean EVERYONE is anticipating her arrival. I’ve made it a point to address this EVERDAY…no Really…My Greek Class can’t wait…or maybe it’s just me…hmm…either way…Kaci has been counting down for me…in fact she’s been beating me to the chase everyday….taking my countdown thunder….She’s pumped…I can tell….OK so after the Hondos center it was time to depart. Kaci and Alexa had a date with Athens Marathon registration and Hjay and I had a date with naptime. SO my favorite partner in crime/avid blog reader/ creeper extraordinaire/ drama analyzer/mostly a creeper/ name stealer/ name borrower/name sharer/reading this RIGHT NOW…you get the point…so we went head on back and run into to Veronica and Joana and they were heading back to the hotel as well. So together we found the tram that ran straight to our hotel area. BUT of course we didn’t hop on until we met some Carolinians…GOOD GRIEF….AMERICANS are EVERYWHERE….I don’t hate it though….there accents made me think of how utterly ridiculous CHRISTMAS family vaycay is going to be…YES! SO AWESOME! BRING on the south!

After naptime happened Hjay and I dated. I was debating going out-out but I was feeling a little on the sick-side…more or less I felt like I Was about to come down with something so staying in was a good idea. SO we went to dinner at Goody’s

Dear Goody’s,
THANK YOU SO MUCH for creating a fabulous CEASAR SALAD
<3 Hlo

NO REALLY, the Caesar salad is so good…it’s now a new 4.60 euro favorite….DONE and done! AND there was a gelato place RIGHT next door…um HELLO! ICE CREAM it was and then lights out Athens….YOU EXHAUST me.

Sunday SUNDAY Sunday!
Florida, Alexa, and Kaci left bright and early b/c it was race-time…very cool of them to go for the gold and run in the Athens Marathon…SUCH athletic buffs…on my heart, I was truly running with them…no really. BUT breakfast sounded too good to miss….so I opted for toast and things instead of the Athens Marathon…bless your hearts girls….bless your hearts.

Today we had the option of free-time for the morning OR the National Archaeological Museum. THIS was awesome…and I took entirely TOO MANY pictures…but….this museum was FILLED to the walls with all the things they have found not only in Athens but all over Greece….HELLO….Greek and Roman Mythology independent study….YOU ARE NOW OWNED…I got lost by myself and literally snapped every God and Goddess thing I could…and I read and read and READ and read my little heart out…HOW COOL is this museum…ok I could take this class in school and just read a book and look at power point slides OR I could literally go to where they are showing us pictures and lecturing us…I really feel like I made out in this situation…SOOO much information about the Gods this weekend! Joann is going to be so proud when I put this all together…SMELLS like a winner…right here…RIGHT NOW! CHA-CHING! Whoop. THIS museum really was cool…and kboo is going to like this a lot too…we are definitely going to come here….since I half-assessed everything we could do together in Athens…I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER TO GET HERE however…since I decided to go on my own in the museum…I got really lost…I started to freak out because I couldn’t find anyone for a really long time….and then I see Kate….(study abroad coordinator) she told me to head back to the bus….and that she was on the search for the rest of everyone…so I took a hike and got to the bus where the coach driver continued to talk at me very agitatedly because no one was back yet….I’m not in charge I don’t know what to tell you…so I said signomi for about 5 minutes and that just to wait they were coming…OY VEY…I can’t do anything about a ton of missing persons…not my job…!

EVERYONE finally made it back to the bus and we were off to meet everyone else for taverna fun….there was live music AND way too much foodà INSERT food coma here…no really….it must be inserted. AND soon enough we were back on the coach ready for an intense journey home. Nothing really significant happened on the ride home…Just me doing work in the rowdy-half of the bus. To be honest I love long bus rides I haven’t a clue why. BUT Athens was a fun weekend and I cannot WAIT to do it again with Kboo…but until then…stay Greece-y

NEXT TIME ON HLOCK DOES GREECE:-HEARTS, stars, and horseshoes! CLOVERS and BLUE moons! POTS of gold and RAINBOWS…and me RED BALLONS! So basically I’m going to my people, finding my husband, and finding the true meaning of being green. Oh Ireland…get ready….I’m coming....