Day 2 - April 13, 2017 (Abby)

We all tried to get up by 6 am but you know that didn’t work out. Olivia, Hailey, and Gladdie clearly weren't affected by the jet lag as they were all bright-eyed while I was struggling to keep my eyelids open. At least I wasn't the only one suffering through the waking up process; when I looked around I could see Jordan is also tired. After a couple mumbles of "Five more minutes!", Gladdie got some cold water and handed it to Olivia. She proceeded to pour it on Jordan to wake her up. When I saw Gladdie disappear back into the bathroom I jumped up from the bed repeating "I'm up! I'm awake, you don't need the water!" Olivia, Hailey, and Gladdie giggled at Jordan and my momentary panic. When we were all at least semi-functional, we walked down the block with Olivia as our navigator. After a few minutes Olivia started to doubt herself and asked Gladdie if she could navigate. Quickly we realized that never owning a smartphone left her a little under-qualified and Hailey and Jordan ended up leading us. We were heading to the Time Day & Night Cafe for some morning coffee in Athens. When we got there everyone who wanted it ordered a regular coffee by using the read aloud feature of Google translate. Really, that program, though not always the most accurate, was becoming my best friend. Gladdie and Jay suggested we go back to the hotel until the food tour at 9:30am, so we could get some time to rest before. While walking back to the hotel Hailey mentioned that it’s Maundy Thursday, a day of remembrance for Methodists of the events leading to and following Jesus' crucifixion. Jordan, being a Methodist, noted the few facts Hailey listed about the day and had a brief conversation about where she learned this.

Gyro

Food Tour,  Plakas Shops (Indigenous Food, Gyro):

At 8:30 am, the alarm I set reminded us it was time to get ready for the food tour. We had to be there by 9 o’clock, so we left as soon as we were all together. We boarded the bus quickly as we were running a bit behind. During the ride, we all talked about how excited and hungry we were for the food tour. Finally, when we got off the bus and regrouped. Olivia said “I’m so excited to try all the food!” and everyone agreed. After everyone gathered, we saw the food tour stand and we all rushed over to it. We checked in and pulled out wallets to pay for the tour. It ended up costing us $55 US dollars each. We met our tour guide, Alexandra, who informed us on some common spices found in Greek cuisine. These include mainly oregano, mint, garlic, onion, dill and bay laurel leaves. Even though these were the most common, there are many other common herbs and spices including basil, thyme and fennel seed. and took us to the first stop. The place we were going was about 20 minutes away, so we jumped on a bus and went to go eat at the Doctor Grill. The restaurant had a lot of Greek foods such as gyros. Gyro is a sandwiches consisting of thinly-sliced, seasoned lamb, beef or chicken, which is then placed in pita or flat bread. Usually the toppings included are onions and tomatoes. However, one can opt to have lemon juice, parsley, and mint on it as well. According to a Fox News article I found later, they also put a white creamy sauce called Tzatziki on it. This ingredient includes strained yogurt, cucumbers, salt, pepper, garlic and dill. Researching some more, we found out that the creator is believed to be George Apostolou, also known as "Papa George".  The history of the Gyro is about as clear as cold butter, but we know it was created in 1922, meaning it wasn't that old of a food. Today you can go anywhere is Greece and find them. Getting back to the restaurant, it smelled like fresh cooked, seasoned meat upon arriving at the site. At about 9:20 we went inside to sit down and we found that it was almost packed. The logo of Doctor Grill was a doctor holding a kabob, which I honestly thought was king of funny because the kabob was as big as the guy. The logo was even on the paper around the gyros. Everyone got a gyro or kabob and it made my taste buds dance with flavor. It had fresh meat and vegetables and was one of the best thing we have all ever had.
After that amazing meal, we decided to head out to the Main Olympic Stadium, which was going to be pretty cool. I had always like the Olympics, so being able to see one of the stadiums up close was going to be awesome.

Main Olympic Stadium (Culture) 
Upon looking at the stadium, from far away, I could already see how impressive it was

Main Olympic Stadium in Athens

We finished eating our food after about an hour and go straight from Doctor Grill to the Main Olympic stadium on another bus. When we got there we saw a giant stadium; it was a little bland in color but still beautiful at the same time. It was so big and it seemed like there were millions of stairs. The stadium was mostly empty with a few groups of people visiting. The 2004 Olympics were held here and I could just imagine the Olympians running across the gigantic track. I found out from Gladdie that the Main Olympic Stadium was the first venue built here, but some other things, like the aquatics center was built later. Only 12 out of the 30 venus are actually completed. Some of them, like the kayaking venue have been abandoned for a long time. We left around 4 o'clock exhausted from walking up all the stairs we left to go eat at Smile Restaurant.

Mount Lycabettus

Mount Lycabettus (Natural Environment)
We arrived at the mountain at around 4:30 and everyone but me was excited to hike. Mount Lycabettus, also know as Lykavittos, means "where the wolves go," but the modern ancient Greeks know it as "path of the wolves." The wolves are gone but the beautiful forest are still there. I wasn't excited because we already did a lot today and I was very tired. Olivia encouraged me to keep going and got me through it. I only could last this long because of how beautiful the sight was from the mountain. The actual mountain had many green trees and bushes we had to climb through. We didn't get near the top but it was so much fun and I don't regret it at all. Also, climbing down a mountain is a lot easier than going up.
Omiros Hotel
We left the mountain at about 6pm and Gladdie and Hailey slept on the bus because they were so tired from all the exercise. When got back to the hotel at around 6:30, everyone was so excited to eat at the hotel and go to sleep. Everyone was asleep by 8 and got a good night of sleep.