athens, part 1

our study abroad program started in athens, greece. all of us students flew in from different places and met there in athens. the first night we got settled into our hotel and just spent the evening walking around the surrounding neighborhood. our hotel was in a pretty nice area of the city, full of shopping and restaurants. the next morning we walked to the acropolis. we stopped at a couple of ancient sites on our way, including mars hill, where paul taught in the new testament (acts chapter 17). you could see the whole city from there and it was so neat. then we got to the acropolis, which was pretty amazing to see in person. the whole complex is so grand and impressive, even before you remember it's been standing since ancient times, even through earthquakes and explosions (for some odd reason, the greeks used to store explosives in the parthenon, despite it blowing up twice). but anyway, it was really incredible to visit. seeing these huge ancient structures made me really realize how young america is as a country. as much as i love the USA, it's kind of sad that we don't have all that history and the art and architecture to go along with it. that's one reason i loved my study abroad so much; getting to travel through so many countries with so much history was unlike anything i'd ever seen or done before.

we got gyros and souvlaki for lunch (yum) and then we were supposed to visit the archeological museum, but we found out it was closing early that day. we suddenly had a free afternoon, so a couple of girls and i immediately decided we were going to the beach! that was the best decision. it was beautiful and warm and blissful and we had the best afternoon playing in the clear blue water and then laying out in the sun and talking. it was a great start to our trip.

there's still more about greece that i couldn't fit into this post, so i'm splitting it into parts. it'll probably take me a couple posts to cover each city since i have so much to look back on. it's so good to be home but i'm missing europe already!