Where do I begin with Athens? It was the city that had an encore return, so it was an extra special city to me. You should never give a snap judgment only minutes after stepping foot off the bus, but I did. At first, I was not a fan of Athens. That was a gravely unfair assessment of Athens, a city I had only seen for a few minutes. My opinion of Athens would soon change in the coming days. The day to hit Athens running came, and I was so hoping my eyes would be opened to the beauty I had yet to see. Based on the area the hotel was in, I had assumed Athens would be just like every other large city I have been to. Once we got to the city center, I changed my mind. Athens was simply a diamond in the rough. Before I jump ahead to my favorite parts of Athens, let me back up to how the first official day in Athens began. A city bus tour drove us through the town, and one of our two stops was to an Olympics Arena. There is no denying my love for the Summer Olympic Games, so to see where they were held in their homeland was something that had my fandom in full swing. From there, we were bussed to the Acropolis, the high point of the city. The ruins atop the hill were of the Parthenon. The guided tour there was nice, but not my favorite. Hey, you cannot like them all. When the guided tour portion of our stay at the Acropolis finished, it was time to make our way down the same way we came up. I did not truly know what slippery marble was like until I met the ruins of the Acropolis. Coming down from the top made me look like an uncoordinated baby horse trying to walk for the first time. The last thing I needed to do was fall and break every bone in my body. A celebration was in order upon reaching the bottom without injury or incident. We treated ourselves to slushies, and even if our victorious accomplishment was not as worthy of our indulgence, us enduring the Greek heat at high noon was. I have never been so happy to see a shade tree in my life. If the views from the Acropolis does not take your breath away, the heat sure will. The group gathered in the city square before breaking off into free time. The square was a busy place that day. A former Prime Minister of Greece had passed away the day before, and the funeral service was going on at the main Orthodox Church. The attendance of the funeral overflowed from the church, and the military formation overtook the Church’s grounds. It is not very often that a person gets to encounter a funeral of a high-profile person from another country. Our free time took us to get lunch and gelato. Between a long morning tour and the heat, we were on the verge of being hangry. That had to be remedied before the rest of the day could be lived in enjoyment. The task to shop held our attention for the rest of the day. Athens has a great shopping district. We even made new friends with a jewelry designer and his employee. The hospitality in Greece is abounding. They sure know how to treat a person and make them feel welcome. The two guys who befriended us gave us each a bracelet as a gift. The bracelet has the iconic good luck symbol of Greece with gemstones on it. I have worn mine every day since I received it, and I do not plan on that changing. They invited us to come back to the jewelry store for coffee, so we obliged when we returned to Athens in a few days. Just as we said, we kept our word and met them for a late morning cup of coffee. I also did some last-minute shopping while I was there. Athens was the place we stayed the longest and visited twice. I truly felt at home there, and the people we met only made it harder to leave. And to think I only saw a fraction of the beautiful city of Athens, makes me eager to return. After spending parts of four days there and still having a remainder of unseen territory puts into perspective how small we all are in a vast world. Stay Curious, Kayla ©Inquisitive Perspectives 2017
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