Day 9 - April 20, 2017 (Gladdie)

Somehow, everyone had forgotten to wake me up until five minutes before eight. Thanks to Jordan, who woke me up by placing a chocolate muffin in front of my nose. It ended up being my breakfast and we were out the door by seven, because Jordan said she had reserved bus tickets to Patras at noon. We had to two sites to reach and we had to cut off an hour for packing.

Mystras

Mystras (History)
As soon as we reached Mystras, we were greeted by an overly enthusiastic "tour guide" who spent most of the time advertising hand-soaps for a local shop we had passed on the way there. We did manage to get some interesting facts from Wikipedia after the man got the hint and left. After half an hour. The only things he mentioned to us was how it was very very old. And very very beautiful. Which we could all see, of course. The rocks were rough from the constant precipitation and there were a lot of ancient paintings with the paints chipped off. It had the charming feel of what I'd imagine Italy to be like. Charming old buildings surrounded by shrubs to give it the feel that it was plucked right out of the scene in Verona.
Jordan spent the next half hour telling us about all the historical significance of the town. Apparently it got mistaken as Sparta once before during the Ottoman Empire and then got restored in 2011. She kept on reading facts like, "it experienced a period of prosperity cultural flowering" or how this bloke, William of Villehardouin, ruler of "Frankish Principality of Achaea" captured "Monemvasia" the "last remaining Byzantine outpost on the Morea" in the 1200's. I kept on hearing the words "Ottoman Turks" and "Byzantine", so I supposed they played a role in the building's history. It also experienced a "golden age" and "attracted artists and architects of the highest quality". One truly interesting fact, though. It was the second most important town in the Byzantine Empire. The first being, of course, Constantinople, the capital.
(Note: Mystras has walls. The first being named "Chora" and the second "Kato Chora". The cathedral of Sparta was taken to Mystras and that was why it became the capital of Moreas from approximately 1450 - 1550. There was a philosophic school there in 1400. It's rulers were Emmanuel Kantakouzenos- 1348 to 1380, Matthew Kantakouzenos- 1380 to 1383, and Demetrios Kantakouzenos, 1383 to 1384, Theodor I- 1348 to 1407, Theodor II - 1407 to 1443, and Constatinos Paleologos- 1443 to 1449. In 1825, Albanian Turks slaughtered the population and abandoned it until it formed the part of the first Greek state.)
Temple of Artemis Orthia (Culture)
The Temple of Artemis Orthia was important to Sparta in the way of religion. Apparently that's what the brochure said. It was from a stall that close to the ruins, and their products were way overpriced. Not to mention that their customer service was severely lacking. We bought only one brochure and shared it among the five of us.
Apparently it had been built more than two thousand years ago and the other four got bored after less than half an hour. There were some interesting facts. Apparently young boys got flogged for initiation rites, and they also had steal cheeses to get flogged. Another version of the story was that they were beaten at the altar while a priestess stood by holding Artemis' statue. Huh. Apparently, in Sparta, you had to get flogged to get accepted in Sparta's society.
Orthias was the goddess of salvation and fertility and then vegetation. Later, it was connected to Artemis and there lots of bloody spectacles during the Imperial Period. Apparently, Artemis Orthia was also associated with the education of the Spartan children under 13. There was also a smaller temple below it which was almost three thousand years old.
Brunch
We decided to visit the coffee bar that was attached to the hotel. The meal we claimed as "brunch" as we wouldn't be getting a decent meal for the rest of the day. I'd seen scones in there topped with goat cheese or whatever Spartan addition there was. We managed to grab a few scones, cookies, and slices of cakes. The coffee shop was obviously trying to mimic Starbucks. When Abby Googled the Starbucks menu, they had just about everything, plus the oatmeal and chicken salads, which Olivia and Jordan got. They had added goat cheese and olives for a Greek tang to it, but it was just chicken salad, in my opinion. I was the type of person who splurged on junk-food, and had two chocolate scones plus a slice of pound cake along with "Tsoureki" to satisfy my sweet tooth. It was basically sweet bread formed into braids and it tasted amazing. It was fresh out of the oven and very soft and fluffy, yet chewy at the same time. It was so great that I bought another two for the bus and train rides to Patras. Hailey was trying for a cultural feel of things and got "Paximathia" which was whole wheat and chickpea.

No one knew where the bus station was. Jordan had seen it online and had gotten tickets without knowing where the location of it was. We split up into two taxis because of the large amount of luggage, except the two took entirely different routes to the station. Luckily, I was part of the group which arrived later, with Abby and Olivia, so I didn't have to ask strangers where the station was. Jordan and Hailey found it for us and we had half an hour to kill before the the bus arrived. It only arrived twice a day and we were lucky it wasn't at night, or something. There were lots of people at the station. It was sort of like the airport, which was shocking. I thought it would be more like a bus stop. There were shops here and there selling trinkets like dream catchers, which was weird. We were in Greece. Why would someone be selling dream catchers? All of us were pretty stunned to see so many people. I mean, Raleigh was a like a village to a county compared to the amount of people flocking around in Sparta. Most of them were tourists, but still. It was pretty daunting. We luckily managed to find seats after a family of five left, so it wasn't as bad as standing next to strangers. But then we realized that the buses were already here and had been for the past twenty minutes. And that it was about to leave in about five minutes, thanks to the intercom. Thank goodness we were in Sparta, where there were a lot of tourists who could only speak English.
Bus

The ride there was two hours long. Jordan seemed to have forgotten to get tickets close to one another. Hailey, Olivia, and Abby were the lucky ones. Hailey sat in front of Olivia and Abby- but at least she wasn't stuck to a random strangers like Jordan and I. Jordan had it easy. She was sleeping the whole trip. And me? No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't fall asleep. I was sitting next to a skinny elderly woman who was glaring daggers at me while I was munching on the various Grecian snacks I'd found, staring at the foreign street signs outside the window. I was so grateful to get off that that bus....
We changed buses to get into Katakolon, where our next site was located at. The bus was a small bus, and we didn't have to pay with money. We had gotten the round trip tickets so all we had to do was show the driver the slips of paper and she let us on. There weren't any seating arrangements on there. Lots of people wanted to go to Katakolon, so we had to wait in a line for a bus to arrive. Sort of the like the buses from the mall to the state fair. We all managed to find seats together because we were the first ones on the bus. We all talked to each other about seeing another city on the way there, and swapped information about how we spent the bus ride to Olympia.
Katakolon Museum of Ancient Greek Technology (Technology)
There were very cheap tours around the building. Our tour guide was a grandfatherly figure who cared deeply about what he was telling us. He told us about the alarm clock, the automatic doors, and the movable theaters of ancient Greece. It was surprising how many of our modern technological improvements were so similar to those in the ancient times. The ancient Greeks even made robots and analog computers! There were 300 operating models and we got to see them all before leaving. Some, though, were ruined by time and the museum had had to make models of them or else explain them. The example drawings seemed to be carved from limestone, and they showed how Plato had thought of the alarm clock. Things like that. It was interesting in the way that it made you stand back and say, "Huh. I didn't know that." However, the tour guide seemed to have developed a cough so we left early to get a feel of the city while we could.
Katakolon Cruise Port
While none of us can claim to be fisher women, the port was beautiful. The waters were gray and we had stayed there long enough to see a cruise ship sail by with passengers eager to get on dry land. Then we decided it was getting late and took the bus back to Olympia.
The five of us didn't talk much on the way back to Olympia. We were all disappointed that we couldn't see the city, but we had a train to catch at three thirty and it took five minutes to get there. We didn't have time to explore Olympia, so we just tried to get as much out of the city as we could staring outside the windows.

The train ride there was tiring. I was sandwiched between two strangers, but they didn't give me the same nasty looks as the old woman. One was a seven year old boy who was sleeping, to the relief of his mother a seat back. Then there was another child to the right of me, around twelve or so, who kept on watching videos on Netflix like Harry Potter. Her mother was sitting in the row in front of us and she was sleeping. I was staring outside the window at the scenery the whole time and eventually I fell asleep.

The Pool

Astir Hotel 

We went to the hotel Jordan had booked online first. We needed the rest before the winery tour. The only reason we'd agreed to it was because we had nothing to do. It took a good chunk of money from our budget, but it was better than going back to the US and admitting that we'd let a good three hours go to waste.

Some of us took showers while the rest just stared dully at the windows, finding ourselves with less energy than before the five hours of sitting on a bus. At least, that was what I felt like. There was a pool, but not of us felt like swimming when the sun was about to set.
Caravel Patisserie (Food)

There was a really famous place in Patras called Caravel Patisserie. It was actually the only part of the day I'd been looking forward to the whole trip. There were lots of tourists in there, and we had a hard time finding seats. We managed to snag an empty one by the door and we got pelted by the cold whenever the door opened. It was freezing in Patras.
The shop sold ice creams and pastries, which Jordan and Abby didn't think counted as a full dinner, so they went to some of the grocery stores and bought salads and soups to get their daily doses of vitamins. Olivia and I had no such qualms and ordered masses of ice creams.I got Yogurt Maragkougia, which was basically ice cream mixed with yogurts and fruits. When I finished that one, I also go Stratsiatela, which was vanilla ice cream with dark chocolate. Olivia got Creme Brulee something that looked like caramel vanilla, that she said tasted fabulous.The breads were also amazing, really fluffy in the inside while the outside was coated with chocolate. At least that was what my Brioche chestnut tasted like. Even Jordan couldn't resist and got some Brioche cookies, which was a crispy biscuit coated with chocolate. Hailey was in between and finally settled for eating the rest of Jordan's salad while munching on the two types of Brioche.
Achaia Clauss Winery (Culture)

There were free rum cakes, which was nice. Apparently, as they had a lot of vineyards, which they kept lit at night, for the tours. The whole vineyard smelled like leaves. There weren't a lot of grapes because the harvest season was in Autumn, our tour guide explained. She showed us the tiny green grapes and dared us to taste it, which I did. It was so sour that I wasn't paying attention for the next part of the tour. I was too busy washing the taste from my mouth.They kept huge vats for the wine. That's what the second segment included, where the tour guide I wasn't very excited, though. She, our tour guide, did mention that some of them had been sitting in here for twenty years, waiting to be placed in bottles to be sold for extremely high prices. She showed us the most ancient date, September 14, 1950, and said that it would be harvested after another twenty years. Their most famous wines, she explained, were the red wines, and then listed every single wine type that they had sold the previous year. After that was the alcohol tastings. I wasn't very excited, though. The only alcohol I'd seen was cooking wine. They put them in tiny paper cups and were lecturing us about the aroma and how the sweetness collided perfectly with the tartness of it. I gave Abby the free tastings and was counting down the seconds to nine thirty, when the tour ended. I could tell the guide was doing the same thing. We were the last tour of the day.

Day 8 - April 19, 2017 (Olivia)

We woke up to an overcast cool day. Hailey reported that it was currently 15 degrees Celsius which is about 60 degrees Fahrenheit and was going to get to 20 degrees Celsius or about 68 degrees Fahrenheit in the middle of the day. We went down to eat breakfast and head out making sure everyone had all their bags since we were flying to Sparta later.

We were on our way to Loutraki Bay to go snorkeling. We had all never seen a game of it in person, we'd only ever seen it in the Olympics in our homes back in the states. Gladdie yawned and leaned her head against the car window and watched the sun finish rising. We played a few games of 20 questions on the way to pass the time.

Lourtaki Bay aerial view

Stand Up Paddle boarding and Snorkeling (Sport)
This was easily one of my favorite activities in this trip. I've always wanted to go snorkeling and it has been on my bucket list for so many years. The water was a beautiful shade of blue that you couldn't get back in North Carolina. Abby and I put on the scuba gear as fast as humanly possible to get in the water. We all lined up in front of the group leader to hear rules and safety precautions. My mind wandered to the water behind him and how excited I was. We also had paddle boards to our left for after, which I had done many times back home, and could not wait to do it over the crystal clear blue water. We stepped in the water that we learned was about 4 feet deep at the moment, and I looked down and saw my flippers perfectly. We all smiled to each other because the only one who's ever done something like this was Jordan on her trip to Hawaii a few months before. I will never forget how clear the water was as I ran my hands through. We walked deeper into the bay until it reached 6 feet and we were treading water. We had the chance to go underwater and see the wildlife. Various colored schools of fish swam by as the electrical colors mesmerized my eyes. We all went up for air and laughed and smiled at the beauty of the ocean below us, that we could see from the surface. The paddle boarding was just as fun. We all got them from the dock and got onto our knees at first, then graduated to standing to see the view below into the outstanding waters. I was very rocky when standing up, and we all laughed at the clumsiness I demonstrated, and we rowed to the beach to hang out and lounge. It was so beautiful, and I never wanted to leave. 

The drive to Chania International Airport was fun because we listened to Greek music on the way and it was fun to make fun of the driver for singing along. We kept asking what the words were to the songs, but he would only roll his eyes and smile. Guess he got this a lot. Soon we were pulling up the airport. We paid the driver and hoped out of the car.
Jordan was supper uptight about everything being perfect for the flight. I kept telling her to calm down, but I guess it didn't really matter cause that seemed to only make her more tense. After a while of waiting to pass security I was already bored and just ready to be in Athens. Once we pasted security it was even more boring because then we had to wait for our flight. To my luck, we were running a bit behind so the flight was here soon. We boarded quickly and soon we were taking off to Athens.
Flight to Athens
The flight to Athens was pretty short and easy. The only thing was that it was in the middle of the day, and that made me sort of tired the hour or so after the ride. While on the plane, I didn't do much except admire the view outside my window. I couldn't help but think about the plane ride back home to North Carolina. I knew I was going to miss this place so much. I also started to wonder if I was ever going to get to come back to Greece. I know in some places if you throw a penny in a wishing well, they say you will come back to the country sometime later in your life. I'd have to find one of these wells. After all this thinking I felt Abby tap my shoulder letting me know it was time to go. The long boring flight wasn't helped by the fact that when we got of the plane we got right into a cab and drove for an hour. I slept a little in the car ride to help, thank god for sleep.
We were on our way to the hotel to check in and drop off our bags and prepare to go to Sparti and grab some food. I was absolutely starving after the events of the morning and the flight here. When we got to the hotel we were pleased to find that the hotel wait wasn't very long and soon we were on out war way again. We were talking about places to eat on the way there, and we all wanted pizza, as we all love the food. The place, Remo Pizza, was recommended to us by the taxi cab driver that said that they had the best pizza around, and it was not far at all from where we getting dropped off.
The walk to Remo's pizza consisted of chats from our activities and how hungry for pizza we were.

Remo's Pizza (Food)
We were absolutely starving! We loved the food we've had so far in Greece, and pizza sounded really good to all of us. We all ordered the cheese pizza because everything else seemed to have black olives on them, and most of our group said no to them. I'm super glad we chose cheese because as soon as the pizza was set in front of me I knew the taxi driver was right about the food, it was going to be amazing. And it totally was!
Walking to the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil seemed kind weird. What kind of museum was on olive and Greek olive oils, I know Jordan does like oils and neither do I. I know oils are big here in Greece though. As we walked, I wondered what all I would find out about.
The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil (History)

As we entered the museum, the main sign read, "The Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta aims to highlight the culture and technology of the olive and olive production, which is inextricably linked with the Greek and Mediterranean identity." and this really psyched us up to see the museum. The first floor was dedicated to the production of olive oil in the early industrial era. It was so cool to see the early machines developed in Byzantine so many years ago. The museum was meant to take you back to the food of the 20th century, when in reality it just made me want more food. Being the good girl I am though, I walked along with Hailey and listened to some facts about the museum. Some of the facts I caught included that the fact that the presence of the olive tree and the production of olive oil is supposed to be represented in the building. They wanted to show when these things first came into play in Greece. Not only this, the rare fossilized olive leaves, 50,000-60,000 years old, reside in this building. Now I thought that was pretty cool. Jordan thought that Gladdie would like to visit the more kid things, so we made our way to that section of the structure. Upon arriving I found out that they offer the kids a chance to visit three old olive presses, which include the Prehistoric olive press, the Hellenistic olive press, and the Byzantine olive press. I don't know why I found the kid aspect to be the most interesting, but I did. Even with all of this interesting stuff, eventually I got bored, so when we left I was happy to go to whatever was next.
We saw a lot of families while walking to the next museum. To us, all this stuff to see was so new and amazing, but there were so many people who lived and saw this stuff every day, and that came as a shock to all of us.

Clay works in museum 

Archaeological Museum (History)
Upon first sight, this museum was pretty cool. I was kind of bored of this day already, but I was willing to keep going for the rest of the group. Looking over at Abby I knew she was a bit bored too, but even with this we knew Jordan would get made if we acted to silly so we kept our laughing from jokes to a minimum. Walking around the building, Jordan decided to be out tour guide by pointing out some interesting facts. This is the earliest archaeological museum in the country. Jordan informed us that it was built between 1874 and 1876. We all thought it was so cool that we were in a building that old experiencing their history. I thought about how old my house was compared to this building, kind of gave me the idea that the roof might collapse on us at any moment. I shook that thought out of my head as we continued our journey throughout the rest of the exhibits. We saw the oldest art and history that Sparta had to offer, and it was really interesting. Some things that we saw were clay masks, mosaics, and even parts of pyramids. Personally, I didn't understand the need for clay masks. Were they sticky? I don't know but they were all very beautiful. I also wondered how long it had taken to make all of the stuff in the museum. Again, it had been a long day so when Jay finally said it was time to go, I was ready to go back to the hotel and sleep after a long day.
We were all so tired walking home, and my legs felt like they would stop working at any moment. I was so ready to sleep, even though it wasn't very late, but all these early mornings had been catching up with me.
Soon as we got back to the hotel, I plopped down on the bed and contemplated if I should actually brush my teeth and change my clothes. After a good 5 minutes, I finally decided it was worth it so I quickly did all the essentials and I plopped down and fell into a deep sleep.

Day 7 - April 18, 2017 (Abby)

When we wake up we all are super tired because most of us couldn’t sleep on the rocky seas. The swaying of the boat should have felt like a lullaby, while in reality it felt like a roller coaster. Jordan said that breakfast would probably ready. Asking her what time it was I found out it had been 6 A.M! That's so early! But I still hauled myself out of bed. We got up, got dressed, and went down to the dining area and got some eggs and pancakes. We relaxed on the boat until about 7. Walk into to the top deck, my friends and I gazed out at the beautiful island we were coming up on. Chania was so beautiful and I knew I was gonna need a picture of this. Grabbing out my phone, I had taken a good amount of pics. As I was looking over them, we pulled into a dock, which I was so thankful for. I really wanted to get off that rocky boat. When we got off the boat and we were a little distorted at first, as a night at sea can make you a little shaky in the legs. After about 30 minutes of regaining out land selves and grabbing out luggage, we were ready to go. The whole group was pumped to see the marvelous Samaria Gorge. From what I've heard Jordan say, it was going to be beautiful. We hop on a bus, almost missing it actually because we stopped at one of the snack shacks with some exotic foods and we didn't realize the time.
Samaria Gorge (Environmental)

The Kri-Kri

At first glance out of the window on the bus, I knew I was going to love this! I asked Olivia to bring out her phone and so some research on the Gorge. To my dismay, her phone was dead so I had to pull mine out instead. Looking on the Google, I found that has Samaria Gorge is the National Park of Greece since 1962, and it is located on the island of Crete. Samaria Gorge is Europe's largest gorge at about 18 km, with clear spring water clean enough to fill up water bottles is located in Chania. That's crazy! I wonder how many bottles they could fill with the river I could barely see running below me in the Gorge. I knew Jordan was afraid of heights, so when I saw her walking the farthest from the ledge I laughed a bit to myself. Taking a moment for myself, I took on my surroundings. From the pretty stream to the sky high trees, everything was so aesthetically pleasing here. I didn't know how one place could inhabit so much beauty. Looking a little farther away, I saw there was an old village. I decided to look it up to find out more, and it turned out that the village got abandoned in 1962 when the gorge was declared a national park. It's kind of sad that the people didn't get to stay in this beautiful home, but I'm sure they found somewhere else. We went in mid April, just at the start of the hiking season. There was a lot of beautiful flora and fauna there. We even managed to see a "kri kri," an endangered wild goat, there! We didn't eat much for lunch, though. We feasted mostly on energy bars between the five of us. After a while of hiking through the steep cliffs and rolling hills, we finally made it to the end of our hike, and I was sure glad because it felt like my legs couldn't work anymore. Asking Jordan where we were going next, I was pleased to find out it was a beach. Man, I couldn't wait to get my tan on.
I was so looking forward to arriving at what I had been told was Elafonissi Beach. Olivia and I were already getting our tanning lotion out, ready to get our tan on.

Elafonissi Beach

Elafonissi Beach (Environmental)
We all headed out with in our bathing suits because we were super ready to play in the water. From afar, looking at the turquoise water I wondered if the water would be warm or cold. I hoped warm because I was done with the cold ocean water in North Carolina. Jordan and Hailey raced ahead of us, running into the shallow water to reach the island consisting of white and pink sand. Olivia and I soon were kicking up sand as well, in attempt to steal the best spot on our part of the beach. As soon as I reached the island, I laid my towel down and started soaking in the sun. Gladdie came wondering up later, and immediately turned to Jordan, wondering about the facts of the beach, always acting so smart. Deciding to listen in I heard some cool facts. Located in southwest Crete, about 75 miles from the town of Chania, this beach allows people to visit the beach by bus or boat everyday. You have to walk out to the small island, but the water is extremely shallow and warm. Because of the closeness to the city and also the range of transportation, it is an extremely popular beach. That explains why there are so many people. After that quick thought I started listening again and found out that Eladonissi is a natura 2000 protected area and in 2004 it was on trip advisers top 25 list of beaches. It is a mile long and is home to 110 species of plants. Deciding I wanted to shut down for a while and relax, I stopped listening so that I could lay under the war sun. This beach was the coolest thing ever, it was beautiful. The water was crystal clean and there weren't a lot of people, so it was easy to relax. We hung out at the beach for a while, and we saw a few kids playing in the water. There were people relaxing everywhere, and the sound of fun and laughter rang in my eats. I think we all got sun burnt, but it was worth it to see this amazing sand beach.I was sad when we had to leave to get on out ferry, but when I looked down to see my crisp skin, it must have been a good thing. Walking back through the water, I heard my stomach growl; it sounded like a herd of elephants. I was looking forward to a good lunch.
Stachi
To Stachi was a nice change to all the heavy foods on the ferry. They focused mostly on vegetarian foods and used a heavy blend of tomatoes and corn and pasta. From the smell wafting out of the restaurant I got even more hungry. We rushed into the building and immediately got to deciding on what we want for lunch. We all decided on a big hand tossed Greek salad, which turned out to be the best salad I've had so far. After a quick meal, we decided to head out as we had a long car ride ahead of us to get to Alexia's Homemade Jewelry. I don't remember the car ride because I fell asleep. All the warm air from earlier at the beach had made me sleepy. Upon arriving, we paid the driver and I groggily got out of the cab, still in a half sleep. As soon as we were walking though I was ready to continue the day.
Alexia Homemade Jewelry (Culture)
We got to Agora finally at about 12:20 and the first thing we did was make a Beeline for a homemade

Alexia Homemade Jewelry

 jewelry place called Alexia Homemade Jewelry. Apparently, Olivia had gotten a tip from a friend who had already been to Greece to go there. I wondered what everyone would get. I know that Gladdie and Jordan aren't much into jewelry, so my guess was that Hailey might get something, but Olivia and I definitively would. I knew as soon as I saw the store I would definitely be getting something because just from the store window you could see the beauty of the necklaces inside. The store had all sorts or things, from small rings to large necklaces. Each piece of jewelry was homemade and beautiful. To my surprise, everyone ended up buying rings and necklaces as souvenirs, even Jordan and Gladdie. Walking back outside, I was finally able to take in the full Agora, and I knew I would never forget the view. With out new jewelry in hand and the marvelous sights in my mind, we started to head back to the hotel for a chill afternoon. I knew that we would forever remember the times like these we spent in Greece. This will be an amazing memories that we will be reminded of every time we look at it. We stopped for a quick lunch at a nearby brunch place and ate quickly because we were all excited to go where we were going next.The next thing we headed to the was Aphrodite Beach, and even though I already looked like a burnt chicken, I was going to enjoy the afternoon just laying on the beach. Due to the fact that the sky had clouded up, covering the sun we would be able to enjoy the afternoon without the worry of contracting skin cancer.
Aphrodite Beach (Natural Environment)

The beach was beautiful, even with the semi dreary backdrop. Before arriving, we had made the whole group agree to not say anything educational, it was a time for relaxation. Everyone nodded in approval of this testimony because we all had been busy. Putting my blanket out on the beach, and lying down on the soft sand made Greece even more of a paradise. While I loved seeing all the historical things, I really loved being able to listen to the waves in the distance. I was going to miss this place once we left. After a little while of seeing just resting, I heard someone start speaking. Peeking an eye open, I saw a guy trying to sweet talk Olivia. Everyone is our group started chuckling because of how uncomfortable Olivia looked. She said to the guy that she wasn't looking for a relationship and that it wouldn't work anyway. After he walked away with a disappointed look, all of us burst out in laughter. After that funny encounter, we decided to pack up and head to our new hotel that was right beside the beach.
Aphrodite Beach Hotel

We left the beach at around 5 pm, so when we got and we got to the hotel it was almost time for dinner. Together, we quickly put our stuff down and then headed to the hotel restaurant, which was pretty good considering it was just a small hotel restaurant. After we ate, we went back to the beach to walk around for awhile and watch the sunset. All the colors mixed together created one of the most pretty things I've ever seen. When the last ray left our view we decided to head back to the hotel to watch a movie. To our luck, the TV had an American channel that was playing Harry Potter. Being as tired as I was, I fell asleep halfway through the movie and dreamed of the sunset.

Day 6 - April 17, 2017 (Hailey) Clean Monday

Traditional Καθαρή Δευτέρα 
(Clean Monday) recipe, Azyme Bread

I woke up a little bit before my alarm went off this morning, so I decided to take a quiet walk around and see the view from our hotel. While I was staring off a the mesmerizing ocean, I realized that this was our last day in Athens! I am going to miss such a beautiful place! That's when I decided to head in and wake everyone up. I easily woke Jordan up, but the others proved to be a little more difficult, complaining about good dreams and aching body parts. Eventually, everyone woke up to the promise of food. Everyone was celebrating the end of the Orthodox carnival season and the beginning of fasting with huge feasts and kite flying. Today was the day to leave behind sinful attitudes and non-fasting foods for lent. The hotel offered a special meal with Azyme bread, which apparently is only baked and consumed on Clean Monday! Many people were also headed to Confession today, as that was another part of the tradition. We had our meal of Azyme bread and started heading to the Temple of Athena. It was only a 15 (ish) minute walk.
Temple of Athena (History)

Temple of Zeus

On our way there we took in the beautiful city and people around us as well as all the outdoor excursions taking place. A few of them looked very interesting. 

Even though the temple was smaller than I had expected it to be, it was still beautiful. I stood there, comparing our last temple, the temple of Zeus, and this one until Jordan grab my sleeve and urged me to stay with them. The temple had the signature Greek columns on the front, but this temple seemed more complete and slightly smaller. We had strolled up to the temple, pushing our way through the masses, to get a closer look. As we finally broke free of the pedestrian sea, we heard a voice from the front. Looking over I saw a tour guide explaining the history to his group. I quickly stopped Jordan and Gladdie and asked it we could stop for a while to listen. So after shutting everyone else up, we intently turned to the tour guide. We learned that the temples location was ideal to protect the southern flank of the most vulnerable access point and gate to the citadel. The temple to Athena Nike, the goddess of victory, was worshiped at this temple by deities. The original temple and acropolis was destroyed by the Persians during an attack in 480 B.C.E. Eventually the temple was rebuilt and completed in 435 BCE this version still stands tall today. We also found out that the statue inside of Nike is wingless,even though the custom at the time was to portray the victory goddess with wings. The artist deprived Nike of her wings so that she may never leave Athens. I get what the artist was trying to do and creative license and all the jazz, but I don't know, that seems a bit harsh to me. The last thing I could catch was that the temple was considerably smaller than other temples. I nearly jumped when I heard that, I thought so! I was pulled out of my thoughts by Jay pointing out Abby and Olivia who had started playing thumb wars, those two lost interest rather quickly, I learned. Everyone was staring at the two and had a less than amused expression so I decided, better go. Slowly we pushed back through the crowd when Jay, looking at her watch, exclaimed, "I didn't realize how late it was!" I felt my stomach growl, I guess I had lost track of time too.

We probably should have left a little bit earlier, maybe before we were all starving, because all we did on the walk to the Kebab place was groan about how hungry we were. 

For lunch we stopped at Thanasis Kebab where we all ordered what looked like a shredded chicken, lettuce and pita chip dish. After we finished our food and paid, we started our walk up to the Erechtheion. On the short walk up to the temple, I almost killed my battery life taking pictures!

Erechtheion

Erechtheion

When we arrived at the Erechtheion, I couldn't help but stare at the marble. It was beautiful! When we walked in I briefly remembered reading that the Erechtheion was built on land that was sacred and the east hall was dedicated to Athena while the west was for a local hero, Boutes. It was designed to accommodate for the extremely uneven ground while not disturbing shrines such as the ones for Poseidon, Hephaestus, the Olive branch or the spot where Poseidon hit the acropolis with his trident. We wandered around the exhibits for a while, my favorite was the Olive branch that had been given to Athens by Athena. On the south porch, instead of typical columns like the north porch possessed, the columns were six statues of the Caryatids.
Athens Heart Mall

Athens Heart Mall

Once we finished looking around the museum, we headed back to the transit to go to the Athens Heart Mall. After hearing the announcement of our next destination, Abby and Olivia squealed. Gladdie mumbled something about Kristina and needing to get her a gift.
When we got to the mall my eyes sprang open, it was huge! It put any malls back home to shame and it was bustling with people. Our little group nearly ran rampart in the mall. We tried to push our way though crowds of people so we could squeeze in as many stores as possible

The ride there was short considering how most of the way I was dazed out and just daydreaming. I had wondered how everyone would feel as we left Greece? I personally think that I would come back, so I had no need to worry. Not realizing just how fast the ride would be, even though it was about 30 minutes, I felt Olivia shaking me, telling me we were there. I stifled a yawn with my hand, and started to grab my belongings.

Sunset

As we pulled up to the ferry I was amazed at how big it was. I was thankful for the lifeboats on the side considering we would be on this boat for 10 hours almost. I looked over at my friends and noticed how tired they were. I was relieved that we had already made all of hotel and travel arrangements before we went on this trip. We walked towards the big boat, it only getting bigger, As we neared the tickets desk they greeted us politely. We quickly grabbed our tickets and made our way onto the ramp connecting the boat to the dock. I had looked over the edge of the rail at the water below. It quietly splayed along the concert wall. Once entering the boat I became even more amazed, if that's even possible. Jay decided that by our faces we really just needed to find our room and go to bed. After walking up top the greeting desk and grabbing our key cards, we shuffled our way to our room. Walking out onto out balcony, I stared at the ocean before me. I would never forget this view. Making my back into the room I noticed everyone else getting ready for bed, so I copied their action.
With our bodies tired and wary, we were all glad to finally get to plop down on our soft beds. As I pulled the sheets over my body, I felt my eyelids drop and pull me into a heavy sleep.

Day 5 - April 16, 2017 (Jay) Easter Sunday

8:30 - My alarm had gone off at 8:30 AM, and I had groggily rolled over to silence it. When I sat up, I noticed Hailey already awake and playing on her phone, while Abby and Olivia were still sleeping. Gladdie was in the restroom, most likely getting ready, so I had pushed myself up and began picking out my clothes for the day. I asked Hailey if we should wake Abby and Olivia up for breakfast, and she replied with a "probably," so hoisted myself out of bed and made my way over to where Olivia lay. I quickly shook her awake and told her to get ready for breakfast. Then I walked over to Abby's bed and shook her, only to find she wouldn’t wake up. After trying a couple more times I decided to stick my finger in her ear, which resulted in her sitting up and slapping my hand away. “What was that for?!” she shrieked. “You wouldn’t wake up, so I had to try something a bit more dramatic,” I replied while smirking, lifting up my finger which I had stuck in her ear. I told her to get ready for breakfast and she got out of bed, grumbling something about ears and fingers. I finished preparing myself for the day. When everyone else was ready too, I grabbed the others to head down to breakfast. At breakfast, everyone only grabbed a bagel and some orange juice, due to the fact we were running a bit late and needed to leave. Soon we were all on our way out of the hotel.
10:30 AM- We began the day by walking to the Greek Parliament for the changing of the guards. I had to continuously tell Hailey we had to keep walking to get there on time, but all she wanted to do was take endless pictures of the scenery and people walking. Eventually I had to take her camera away, despite her protests, until we got to our destination. Soon we arrived at Syntagma Square where the Changing of the Guards would take place. We arrived at 10:35 AM.

Greek Soldiers

Changing of the Guard (Culture)

11:00 AM - We watched in anticipation as the new guards came down the pathway towards the tomb of the unknown soldier. The tomb's purpose was to honor of all the unidentified fallen soldiers. Having seen the Changing of the Guard in Washington, I found it weird that nobody introduced the Changing. I also noticed how funny their outfits looked. At Arlington Cemetery, the uniforms were black and very professional with pins and military apparel. The Greek soldiers, however, were dressed with dress-shirts and shoes with pom-poms on the tips. I also noticed that their hats had extremely long tassels that seemed to reach to their hips. Not only were they somewhat oddly dressed, they also walked really funny, kicking their legs high in the air. While the American guards almost seemed to float as they walked, not moving any of their upper body, the Greek soldiers lifted up their legs and pointed them out straight, then stepped. However, both had little things on the side of their heels that they clicked together every once and awhile. Overall, though, it was a very nice and respectful ceremony. Everyone was silent , and the footsteps were visible where the guards had stepped a lot, showing years of the ceremony. We made sure Hailey took lots of pictures with her camera. The ceremony was pretty short, lasting only about 15 minutes, but we decided to stick around and just chat until The Lamb on the Spit party started. We finally started making out way to the National Garden at around 11:45 AM.

11:45 AM - Walking to the National Garden for the party wasn’t very exciting. Most of us were just complaining about being hungry. Once the smell of food hit our noses, we all started walking a bit faster, finally arriving at the party at around 11:55 AM.

Roasting of the Lamb on the Spit (Food)

11:55 AM - I don’t know how the others felt, but in my opinion, the lamb in Greece wasn’t any better than in the US. I strayed from that dish as best I could and instead focused on the other foods. I tried out a new food named Tzatziki, which is a type a yogurt. It was so good! The Greek salad and fried zucchini tasted great as well. Since we had a while until the Red Egg ceremony started, we decided to join in on the dancing. I tried dancing: emphasis on the word "tried." But overall, the eating and dancing was extremely fun, and also relaxing. Not only was it enjoyable to do these things, it was also fantastic just to get to talk to my friends.
Red Egg Ceremony (Culture)

Red Eggs used during the ceremony

2:00 PM - Soon the Red Egg ceremony was starting. We had to dye the eggs red ourselves, and Gladdie accidentally dropped hers. Twice. It was a good thing they were already boiled. When I asked one of the locals why they had this ceremony, they replied that it was a symbol of resurrection. The red represents the blood that was shed on the cross by Christ. The hard shell represents the sealed Tomb of Christ, and the cracking is the resurrection. Another "origin of the eggs" story says that Mary brought cooked eggs to share with the other women around the tomb of Jesus. The eggs in her basket turned a brilliant red when she saw the risen Christ. The eggs represent the boulder of the tomb of Jesus. A third theory is that after the Ascension of Jesus, Mary went to the Emperor of Rome and told him “Christ has risen.” The Emperor then pointed to an egg and stated, “Christ has no more risen than that egg is red.” After saying this, egg immediately turned blood red! Getting back to the ceremony, the game involving the eggs was called "tsougrisma." This game consisted of two players and red eggs. Each person holds an egg and lightly taps the opponent's egg, trying to crack the opponent's without cracking his or her own. Once one side is broken, the person tries to crack the other side of the opponent's egg. The person who breaks the enemy's egg first is the winner, and therefore has luck for the rest of the year. I decided to go against Gladdie, and because she was laughing so much the entire time, I ended up winning after she cracked her own egg. Abby and Olivia played against one another, and because I was playing Gladdie, I didn’t get to see the game. However, when I turned around and saw egg all over Abby’s hands, I assumed that Olivia had won. After that, I battled Olivia, who ended up winning. Olivia fought "the boss," Hailey. Hailey ended up winning, but Hailey, Olivia, had I had all been bestowed good luck for winning a game. All of this ceremony and food ties back to Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday is the day that christ rose from the dead, giving all christians faith in him and also repenting all sins of humans. Jesus will take all the bad deeds done from everyone and die on the cross for us. Easter Sunday shows how much God loves us. Next, at around 3:00 PM, we all said our goodbyes and started to head to the temple of Zeus.
3:00 PM - While walking to the Temple of Zeus we all marveled at how beautiful Greece was. I was extremely thrilled that we were able to go to Greece. Especially with all my friends, I knew that it would turn out to be one of the best trips I had ever taken. Before I knew it, we had arrived at the temple.

Temple of Zeus

Temple of Zeus (Historical)
3:15 PM - Not only was this the temple of Zeus, it was also called the Temple of the Olympian. Because of the name, I thought it must be pretty important. Right off the bat, I was flabbergasted by the Temple. While standing there I could just hear the Star Wars soundtrack playing in the back of my mind, making it seem like a movie set. I imagined all of my friends and I holding lightsabers, fighting to keep the Temple safe. I obviously had a purple lightsaber ;). Anyway, I have to admit, it reminded me of the Parthenon with its towering columns and chiseled look. What amazed me most, though, was the fact that most of the temple was gone. While there, I found out that the building had started to be built in 174 BCE and was finished by Roman emperor Hadrian in 131 CE. Antiochos IV Epiphanes, the King of Syria, started the building of the temple. Cossutius had started the work, but after the fall Antiochos, the work stopped. For centuries no one worked on the temple except for Hadrian, who worked on it from 124-125 CE. In fact, Sulla had stolen a few columns of the temple in 86 BCE for re-use in the Roman Temple of Jupiter. Augustus had worked a little on the temple in the early 1st century CE, but overall, Hadrian, the great philhellene, was the one to finally finish one of the biggest ancient temples ever in 131 CE. Over the years the temple experienced many events that resulted in its downfall. For instance, it was re-used for other buildings and "survived" a storm that happened in 1852 CE. Due to these factors, the temple only has 14 of the columns left: 2 in the south-west corner and 12 in the south-east corner. Because of the storm, one of the columns is lying across the site, spread across a perfect line. Gladdie wanted to get onto of the column so badly, but after I gave her the "mom face" (as she calls it), she decided not to. It was a beautiful sight, but I was glad to go at 6:00 PM because of the huge crowd. 

6:15 PM - The walk to Geros Tou Moria was quick, considering how hungry everyone was!
Geros Tou Moria (Food)
6:20 PM - When we finally arrived at the restaurant, we were glad to be there a little early because the restaurant was already pretty full. Not having much time, we all decided to get a healthy Greek salad, stuffed olive leaves, yogurt, and sprites. Even though it wasn’t the fanciest food it was still pretty tasty. Comparing their stuffed olive leaves to the ones I made in 6th grade, they were extremely good. 

Athens Concert Hall

Athens Concert Hall (Culture)
7:30 PM - When we arrived at the Athens Concert Hall for our play, things had already started to get packed. We rushed over to get our tickets and each paid 12 euros. We then quickly shuffled our way to our seats, which turned out to be pretty good. The play we had watched was called The Murderess. The main character, Frangoyannù, was extremely good at singing and the orchestra was so pretty. Olivia, Abby, Hailey, and I always drummed our feet to the beat of the song. Gladdie kept giving us be quiet looks, but we kept tapping anyway. As it was an Opera, the singing was very loud and long, which was just a little off to me, but still very good. The creator of the play, Giorgos Koumentakis, even came out on stage after the opera was over. It was so cool! I didn’t really understand the play all that well, but it was still fantastic.
10:00 PM - After the play was over, we had trudged our way to the bus stop, tired, but jubilant at how good the show was. I had looked over and saw Olivia already half asleep and chuckled to myself. The bus pulled up to our stop, and we climbed the steps. After finding our seats, I had sat down and thanked god for them. The rest of the ride was peaceful, and as we pulled up to the hotel and got off, everyone was relieved to be back. We arrived at around 11:10 PM.

11:10 PM - We made it back to our room, and after getting ready for bed, we all settled down after a long day

Day 4 - April 15, 2017 (Gladdie)

Waffles for Breakfast!

I woke up to someone's arm in my face. I won't say whose arm, *cough*, but I couldn't sleep after that, obviously. Taking advantage of the moment, I showered only to find that, surprisingly, Hailey was gone and had left a sticky note saying that she was eating breakfast. There wasn't anything else for me to do, so I decided to walk down there with her and we had a wonderful time eating a cheap hotel breakfast. Waffles and Cereal. Wasn't that heaven? I was very enthusiastic about seeing everything in Athens and I was telling Hailey about it. She was just as excited and explained that she had spent an hour this morning in the breakfast room because she couldn't sleep. We talked about the sites for a while, waiting for the rest of our group to wake up.
There wasn't much to talk about on the way to the Parthenon. I was staring in awe at the weird streets while Hailey was chatting with Jordan about all the facts she'd Googled about the Parthenon. Abby and Olivia were snap-chatting weird things like lamp posts. I don't understand phones.
Parthenon (History)

The Parthenon

I'd like to say that the morning was very interesting, but I would be lying. The Parthenon was not as exciting as I thought it would be. It was an old musty building with statues in it. Yay! I got bored after the first half hour and spent the next two and a half hours watching everyone take pictures while I tried to look like I was having a great time. In actuality, I was dreaming about what we would be having for lunch. Noticing I was bored, Jordan and Hailey tried to fill my head with as many facts as possible. Reciting what I can remember, the Parthenon was built on the Athenian Acropolis. It was started in 447 BC and finished 432 BC, I always found it weird that the BC timeline went backwards. Anyway, the Parthenon was made to worship the goddess of battle strategy and wisdom, Athena, who is the best goddess ever. It was built by the architects Ictinus and Callicrates under the supervision of the sculptor Phidias. Since Greece had been working on math, they were able to make the Parthenon with precise dimensions through geometry. Most of the temple still is around, but it has gone through many severe disasters. Some of these disasters include fires, earthquakes, and gunpowder explosions. I have to admit that it was kind of cool by being able to withstand all of those things. To my surprise, the Parthenon was converted into a church later in it's time. However, today it is a Turkish Mosque. I finally got bored of listening to the two nerds go on, so I just spaced out till it was time to leave.

The walk to Fresko Yogurt Bar was amazing. The highlight of it being the fact that Jordan nearly got run over by a car. She let out a long string of curse words a some young Greek couple who looked like they had just come back from their honeymoon. It was quite amusing. Never knew that Jordan knew so many curse words.

Abby's Lunch- Yogurt

Fresko Yogurt Bar

None of us actually knew what to get, so we all just randomly chose dishes. We got to add weird random things to our yogurt and mine looked like a skyscraper by the time I was done listing off the toppings to the bartender. Oats and oranges and bananas and strawberries and all that fun stuff. Sadly, it didn't taste as nice as it looked and I had to scrape off all of the topping just for it to taste decent.
Abby was the only one who got a yogurt that both looked and tasted nice. Olivia just added a few strawberries, Jordan had tried to be creative and had been handed something that looked like a Dumpster while Hailey's was somewhere in between Jordan's and Olivia's.
The walk to the Acropolis was uneventful except for the fact that it was rather quick. We didn't have to get stopped at any red lights and we were all very happy about that.
Acropolis of Athens (History)
The Acropolis is just an amazing thing overall! Even though, yes it consists of a lot of old building, it still looks beautiful. The towering columns surrounding each side of the buildings were so cool as well as the other styles of architecture presented throughout the Acropolis.. After walking around for some time just looking at it I got bored though. I walked up to Hailey and Jay and asked them to enlighten me on some facts. The Acropolis of Athens was an ancient citadel located on an outcrop above Atheens. It wasn't a huge building, as it was a collection of buildings instead. It consisted of the Parthenon, the Erechtheion (a temple to the gods Attica, Athena, and Poseidon-Erectheus), and the Temple of Athena Nike. We didn't visit any of the major landmarks, we just found a spot so we could see most of the sites we had visited and were going to visit in the next day or so. I took in all the building in front of me and thought about the next couple days. Yes, they were going to be tiring, but they were going to be fun. Visiting all the historical buildings would really broaden me and my groups sense of the world.
Acropolis Museum (History):
When we went inside, we found that there was food! Well, I found that there was food and managed to convince Jordan that I was a growing child and needed french fries two hours after I'd had lunch. Then we went exploring, except for the fact that some of the exhibits prohibited food and I had to finish a large set of fries by myself. The rest of them weren't hungry. I wonder why. The exhibits were cool, except for the fact that most of the statues were cracked. Everyone was sorta hungry on the way to the National Garden, except for me. We stopped at a stall on the way there and got some ice creams at a shop. The lady there was nice and she was patient with us as we tried to pronounce all the different flavors of ice cream. Except for the food, I didn't pay much attention. All the artifacts didn't really matter much to me. The only things I can remember are that the museums foundations were laid on 30 December 1865. The new Acropolis Museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, about 10 times more space than the first Acropolis. The first level of the building contains artifacts from the settlement and sanctuaries on the slopes of the Acropolis. The second level contains the archiaic finds. The last level, the third level are artifacts from the building on the Acropolis excluding the Parthenon. After that it's also just kind of a blur.
National Garden
It was refreshing seeing green. After a whole day of staring at limestone buildings, we finally got something else! But it got pretty boring pretty quick. They were all hungry and we decided to have dinner. The garden was located behind the tomb of the unknown soldiers at the top of Syntagma (Constitution) Square. It opened in the 1920's and has many attractions. I was just really hungry, so not much mattered to me. I was jusy happy to leave when we did.
GB Roof Garden
Greek food is weird, but it's nice too. Olivia got a chicken salad while Hailey got some lamb. Jordan got a plate of shrimp. Abby ate just a plate of ravioli while the other three had what seemed to be a whole truckload of food. I was the weirdo on the side sipping on Coke and nibbling on bread, obviously I wasn't very hungry. Looked over to the view of the Parthenon in the distance I thought about North Carolina. Yes I was going to love to see my family, but Greece was just so beautiful. I really hoped I would get to come back someday. After paying the bill, we all shuffled out of the restaurant.
The four of us took a nice stroll to the Hadrian Arch.
Hadrian Arch (History)
But it was already pretty dark when we got there and the only pictures we got we couldn't see anything. Who knew the sky was that dark in Athens? It was the fourth day and we didn't check when the sun set. So it ended up being where Hailey and Jordan, ever so cheerful, took a few pictures while Olivia was comforting a moaning Abby who insisted that Greek portion sizes were too large.  The arch, erected in honor of the Roman emperor Hadrian, wasn't looking too effective in the darkness. It was built in the 2nd AD, a little before 131 AD, when he visited Athens. The inscription "IG II2 5185" on the west states "This is Athens, the ancient (or former) city of Theseus". On the east, it said, "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".
It sort of confused me because they seemed like they were talking about two different things. Scholars seemed to have debated about that too. Maybe he wanted to place himself as Athens' hero, instead of Theseus?
Omiros Hotel
We headed back to our hotel because of Abby's upset stomach and the fact that it was dark outside. We still had a few hours to kill before the Candle Ceremony. The TV was on while we played Uno. But with an hour left, we all ditched the game. Jordan took a nap while I watched Greek news. Hailey was researching about the sites we would be visiting tomorrow while Olivia decided to watch Netflix with Abby.
It was really dark outside when we headed back out, but there were still people on the streets. There were people singing about Easter in front of the church. There voices were much better than any of ours, so we gave them a few euros.We were early by half an hour, so there were plenty of seats left. We managed to find ones up in the front.
The Resurrection or Anastasis/The Candle Lighting Ceremony (Culture and Ceremony)
Upon arriving to the church we were participating with in the ceremony, I knew this was going to be new to me. Stepping inside the door, I found it quite interesting because the whole place was dark. Not know much about the ceremony, I queered Jay about it. The candle lighting ceremony actually happened a couple minutes before midnight, and not understanding what she meant, I asked her to elaborate. This ceremony was used to celebrate the resection of Christ. Basically, the priest would start lighting everyone's candles a little bit before midnight with the Holy Light. I asked her what she meant by the Holy Light and she told me it represented the light in the tomb of Christ. Basically, the head of the church would give this light to everyone, and then a couple minutes before midnight everyone would leave the church after the priest said, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life," and all of this represented the resurrection of Jesus. Getting what she said I grew antsy waiting for the light to be passed around. We got to watch the candles get lit up one by one. Time passed quickly, and when I was out of the daze I found that none of us were sleeping. I got my candle and tried to touch the fire, only to be stopped by Jordan who used her mother voice. Still, it was late, and I was getting bored just sitting there. Finally, the clock struck 11:55 and the priest called out the words and we all started to make our way home. Another part of the tradition was trying to get home without your candle burning out, and if you could accomplish that you were going to be lucky for a year. Sadly, I tripped on some stairs on the way home and my flame died. Everyone else made it back though, but at that point I didn't care because Hailey said we were going to be partaking in the traditional Easter soup. It was an overall good food. We still had some leftovers, so Jordan got some and put it in the fridge for tomorrow's breakfast. (I managed to finish it off when her back was turned).
Everyone was tired when we finally settled down for the night, so I had no problems falling asleep. I dreamed of lighted streets and good food.

Day 3 - April 14, 2017 (Olivia)

The luminous sun radiated into our room, as the clock read 6:20. It’s harder than I thought to adjust to these hours as we all slowly sat up. Hailey lept out of bed and skipped over to the pearl-white curtains and revealed the astounding view. Jay remarked, “I could get used to this!” Seeing the exquisite architecture and bright sky made me smile. I hopped onto Abby’s bed and starting jumping up and down like a little kid on Christmas morning, yelling, “It’s Good Friday, wake up! We have a service to go to!”

Good Friday church ceremony

Good Friday (Culture)We commuted to Church of Panagia Kapnikarea by bus around 7:05 after a hotel breakfast. Abby and I were asking the rest of the group if our outfits fit the occasion. While waiting for the bus, Gladdie had finished her research about Good Friday services all across Greece. We concluded that the services were very serious and that the day itself was generally mournful. To fit this, we were wearing dark dresses. Jordan and Hailey centered our minds and told us we had to be mature and responsible in the service to represent our home. I knew this was going to be a challenge for me. As the service began, we saw Jesus’ icon on the cross. The traditions were that the icon was taken down, wrapped in linens, and put into the Epitaph which was like a sacred tomb. The whole group got very quiet at this time to recognize the Greek rituals and traditions. It was like the sudden need for maturity flushed into my body the second I walked into the chapel. This was a service that we would never forget.

View from outside National Archaeological Museum

National Archaeological Museum (History)
Next on the agenda was the National Archaeological Museum. Having done a decent amount of research on the place, Jordan informed us that it was the largest Museum in Greece, and one of the most important places in the world to honor ancient Greek art. Hearing the subject of art, Abby and Hailey smiled in excitement. Gladdie also added that it was built in the late 19th century and had many Greek antiques, thus displaying the museums artistic, cultural, and historical value. As we entered we all gasped at the aesthetic. Huge columns and marble showed the place’s luxury. We approached the directory, and I pointed to the jewelry exhibit, interested with anything fashion or accessory related. Gladdie and Jordan really wanted to see the Egyptian art, Hailey wanted to see the prehistoric markings, and Abby wanted to see the bronze work. Jordan calmed all the excitement down and said we would visit all the exhibits that we desired. This place really opened my eyes on the importance and value of history and how much we have evolved, and not just in America.First we went to the Egyptian Art section, which I found sort of morbid. They had mummy cases up on display. Mummy cases. As in - preserved dead people's boxes with so many tiny

Trojan Headdress

figurines I thought my head was going to explode. I asked my group if they thought that the sculptor's head might have exploded too and everyone just laughed at me. The exhibit was split up into many rooms and each seemed to have the same figurines and the same jewels.We rock-paper-scissored to see who's exhibit we would go to next. I got lucky and soon dragged them off to the see the jewelry. Most of it was gold jewelry from Troy, which I found very intricately shaped. The only problem seemed to be that they looked too heavy to wear on an everyday basis. My favorite piece was easily a headdress that looked, from a distance, like a blond girl with bangs and two pigtails. It was so beautiful that I was about to ask if it were on sale or not before realizing that, being on display, the answer would probably be a no.
Chez Max French Cafe
Our entrance was definitely clear into the cafe as the sites we’ve seen so far flooded out. We all paid the fee to enter the Olympia Theatre and followed the sign to the cafe. The savory smell filled my nose as we turned the corner as my mouth watered and my stomach growled. We all rushed to order and as we were waiting for our food, we were a nonstop noise machine. We had seen so many things thus far, and now we’re processing all of that verbally. Seeing our plates getting brought out was like spotting treasure. We had all ordered the special, called "Boeuf Bourguignon". The description read beef and burgundy chicken soup with a side of baby potatoes. We all inhaled our food and not a word was exchanged as our hunger took over.

The dolphins did a lot of fascinating tricks

Attica Zoological Park
We had a private tour scheduled to of the Attica Zoo, which I have been excited for since the day we found out we were going here weeks ago. I love animals and going to zoos back at home, and I can only imagine how the zoos in Greece compared to that. My favorite animal there was probably the dolphins. I have only ever seen one in person once in Florida, and we got to see four of them up close. They were so cute and I loved how beautiful they looked going in and out of the water. Abby thought the harbor seals were absolutely adorable! Gladdie and Hailey's favorite animal was the Eurasian Lynx. It was such a beautiful cat that we have all never seen before. Jay's highlight of the zoo was seeing the Nile crocodile in all its ferocity. There were so many animals at the zoo that I grew interest for because of this trip! But despite all all the fun with the animals, our tour guide still pestered us with facts about how it had the third largest collection of birds and how it was open every day of the year, since it was opened in 2000. They even had white rhinos, which was shocking since I'd thought of them as extinct.
Olympia Theatre (Culture)We prepared for the tour of the theatre in excitement. Jordan and Hailey made sure we were all together, as the theatre was very crowded. As the tour began, the history of the place blew my mind. It was originally designed to be a small outdoor amphitheater, but was then upped to an auditorium for plays. It amazed me how the architecture of building was preserved in these exquisite designs and decor. I could imagine ballets and operas being held in these rooms. This is something that Hailey really likes and enjoys the artistic value it has to offer. Now it marveled as an artistic representation of greek plays and culture.