Giving In and My First Impressions

It's been a while since I've had a blog like this. I had several suggestions from people saying that I should get a blog going when I made it to Greece this summer and I wasn't sure if I would be personally up to the task. Of course, I kept getting things that I would say in a blog stuck in my mind and figured that it might be an interesting idea worth trying out. I suppose it's a good way to help everyone keep tabs on what I'm doing as well as helping me articulate the many thoughts that go through my mind. With that said, let's give this blog thing a shot again, shall we?

After a particularly long flight from Philadelphia to Athens and a rather quiet bus ride, we made it to the hotel in Athens around in the early afternoon (incredibly early morning in the States. Before leaving, I learned that Athens is about six hours ahead). After taking some time to settle in the hotel rooms and unpack, the group got together around 1 PM to take a quick tour of the city and explore a scenic route to the Acropolis. All in all, it was great to see the sights in spite of the heat though I had forgotten my camera. I'll have to be more careful about that sort of thing next time we go...

Following a three hour nap back at the hotel room (Siestas are a brilliant idea, especially you didn't get any sleep at all on a 10 hour plane ride...), I went out with another student named Emily to grab some food at a local eatery and enjoy the scenery a little more. I forget what the name of the place was but I ended up getting some calamari and Emily got some grilled meatballs if I remember right. Since then, I've pretty much been hanging out at the hotel and continuing to learn about the people that have come along for the ride.

So far, if I were to use one word to sum everything up in Athens, it would be "snug." For the most part, the streets and sidewalks are more narrow than those in the US and the hotel room is definitely smaller than I'm used to. Thankfully I don't require a lot of space to thrive and the city overall looks beautiful, especially due to the ancient architecture. Of course, a lot of the more open areas are filled with various peddlers, stray cats and dogs, and the like but there seems to be a charm to it if you look at it in the right light. I also find some of the language usage and integration to be interesting, especially since the warnings against going on the various sites are exclusively written in English. I suppose we'll see what other things I can find here to talk about and hopefully I'll get into the habit of taking more pictures...