Touring Athens Day 2

We woke up, got ready, and went downstairs for breakfast. The room was pretty nice. It had two levels. The main level had tables with place settings set up and it looked like conference rooms were up stairs. The main food table was filled with random snack items; cookies, little cinnamon rolls, and mini croissants. There was also traditional Greek food- cheese, meat, and a tomato, onion, and cucumber salad. At first glance, I assumed the salad was fruit- watermelon, pineapple, but then I looked closer..yuck! For breakfast?! There were eggs and bacon and although their bacon is cooked a little differently so it tastes more like warmed up ham, I made sure to balance out the pieces of Nutella smothered toast I had, by eating some of each.

We checked out of the hotel and walked up the street (where the lady at the front desk directed us) and found Arcopolis, the area where the Parthenon is. Fortunately, most of the historical sites were located within Acropolis, so they were all within walking distance. The Parthenon was on top of a huge hill, but the walk up wasn't bad because there are historical sites along the way that we stopped at. We saw Dionysis Theater, the first stone theater and home to Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and Aristophanes. We kept walking and came to a much larger theater, the theater of Herod Atticus, which was built in 161 AD! It was hard to even process how old everything was.

Finally, we made it to the top. Seeing the Parthenon was unreal! There I was standing in front of an iconic structure that I have only seen in pictures. Although they are so different, I got the same feeling when I saw the Parthenon as I did when I saw the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Like it really set in that I am so far from home, living it up in another country. The Parthenon has scaffolding on one side because it was badly damaged during a war in 1687. It had been turned into an ammunition store, so when it was hit by canons, gun powder ignited and ended up blowing up 28 columns. Right near the Parthenon is the Ercechtheion, which was a temple. It has the famous, "Porch of the Maidens" where six figures of Greek women are used as columns.

Parthenon Selfie

View from the top of Acropolis, where the Parthenon is

 After taking plenty of pictures at the top of Acropolis, we headed down to visit more sites before they closed. We made it to the Ancient Roman Agora, which was a small section of land that contained a large tower and columns. It was built after a donation from Julius Caesar and Augustus- don't be fooled by all my Greek knowledge, I have been Googling the sites we went to. Yes, I probably should have done it before we visited them so that I had some idea of their significance, but now that I have actually seen them, it makes reading about them more interesting. I can't believe the things I touched were so old! Everything I saw reminded me of my little brother Caysen since he likes Greek mythology. I hope he is able to come out and visit!

After the Roman Agora, we went to the Ancient Agora, which was a lot bigger. It was the main center of town during the 6th or 7th century BC. Inside the Ancient Agora was a museum, statues, an ancient church,  and a structure that looked like a smaller version of the Parthenon.

Rusty got in trouble about .1 seconds after this...I don't know how they were onto us so quick,
but as soon as he stepped up there, a couple women came shouting haha

Just a cute apartment building

After we finished, we set out to find Ermou Street, which Costas' girlfriend recommended. She said it was the main street for shopping. We found it fairly quickly and even better, the first thing we saw after making it to the main part of the city, was McDonald's! Rusty b-lined there without even looking back to see if I was following haha. A Greek woman took our order and she was not very happy that at first I told her I didn't want a soda and then I changed my mind and said I did want a soda. She told me I should have told her at the beginning. You could imagine her anger when after we finished ordering, Rusty said he wanted his burger plain. She told us it was too late haha! But she must have felt bad because then she said angrily, "So just meat and cheese?" Apparently they don't teach their employees how to change or add something to an order like they do in America, but I must admit the food was good!

We even ran into missionaries at McDonald's! We were so excited, we bought them lunch. There is only one mission in Greece and 50 missionaries total. They were both from England. One had been out for seven months and one had only been out five days! We left them to eat their lunch and walked over to Ermou Street. There were lots of shops, including two H&M's. One of them was huge and super nice inside. We shopped around for a while, but didn't end up buying anything.

Why can't all H&M stores look like this?

It began to rain while we were shopping, but luckily most of the street had awnings. There were guys walking up and down the street selling umbrellas, but we were to cheap to buy one. We walked to the bottom of the road, where all the taxi's sit, waiting for their next customers. We had some time before we needed to get to the bus station, so we stopped and took some pictures of the view. We killed a little bit more time by eating a dessert at a place nearby and then we took a taxi to the bus station. The bus ended up being delayed a little bit, but luckily only about 15 minutes. After about a two and a half hour ride, we finally made it home. What a great weekend in Athens!  

Touring Athens Day 1

This past weekend was the first weekend ever I have been able to travel with Rusty for a volleyball game! I was pretty excited that George, Rusty's coach who seems nice, but scares me because he is so hard to read, said that I could go with them. The game was down in Athens, so Rusty and I took backpacks and planned to stay overnight since he had the following day off. Other than riding down with the team, we had made no plans...we didn't know where we would stay, how we would get around, or even where the main part of Athens was in comparison to the city the game was in. I like to plan everything out, so being so spontaneous worried me; part of me just assumed we would end up riding back with the team since we didn't have a place to stay. On Saturday morning, Rusty and I walked to his gym to meet up with the team. We got on a little bus and sat in the very back, so we could continue with our Harry Potter movie marathon.

The bus stopped about half way for lunch. We ate pasta at a nice Italian restaurant, which was right next to the sea...so this is what Rusty does while I am at home cleaning the apartment and watching shows on Hulu ;) Not that I can complain! We continued on our way, passing a Starbucks and TGI Friday's right before making it to the gym. Just seeing places I recognized made me so excited. Lamia was playing a team called AEK. As always, there were about 8 police standing outside the gym. AEK's gym was smaller than Lamia's, but apparently they are known for having loyal and crazy fans. As described by Nikitas, the libero, "They could be playing ping pong and lots of fans would be there screaming and crazy."

We had about two hours til the game began, so I walked with Vickie, the stats girl, over to a coffee shop next to the gym. On our way there, she asked one of the players if he wanted any coffee, but he was good with his Red Bull. Yes, some professional athletes here not only smoke, but they begin practice and games by drinking coffee or Red Bull.

The game was about to begin and the stands were filling up. The fans were mostly men. There was one guy would who was the ring leader of the crazy fans. He stood in front of the stands the entire game leading the chants and songs. At one point his shirt came off, which was not a pretty sight. Eventually two more guys joined him in "organizing the craziness" as Rusty likes to call it. Since their cheering consisted of chants that repeated over and over, their cheering began to annoy me. They cheered the entire game, didn't even stop for one minute, which also didn't help. Don't get me wrong, I love cheering, and would actually get annoyed when people sitting near me at BYU games would give me dirty looks for cheering loudly...it's a sporting event, if you don't want to hear fans, watch it at home. But, the fans at AEK were just different than what I am used to.

Lamia won the first two sets. On the final point of the third set, one of the refs made a horrible call and said a ball that Lamia hit inside the court was out. They even admitted later it was in, but AEK ended up winning the third set because of it. I was cheering loudly for Lamia and Vickie told me to be quiet. I was surprised and little bugged by it, but after the game she explained that she was worried about my safety. She said she didn't even wear Lamia's team color because she was scared to, which made me realize just how crazy the fans must be. The next time I go to cheer at an away game, I will definitely reconsider how loudly I yell. Fortunately, we were able to win in the fifth set! The coaches were so excited they ran out onto the court.

After the game we talked to Costas, the guy who picked us up from the airport when we first arrived in Greece and who is basically Rusty's agent. He has a friend who owns a hotel in Athens so he called him, set up a hotel room for that night, and even paid for it! He wanted to go out to dinner with us, but he had to take George, the coach, to the airport and pick up his girlfriend, so while Rusty and I waited for Costas and his girlfriend to get back, we walked up the street and found a bench right in front of the sea. Although it was a little hard to see because it was dark out, I loved hearing the waves gently crash along the shore. There was a large, well-lit dock with lots of little fishermen boats tied up to it. By Fishermen boats, I mean the kind you picture in Greece, or at least I do. The kind that are small and colorful and were in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. We sat chatting, listening to the waves, while eating the fruit we packed in our backpacks. We got a phone call from Costas letting us know he was back, so we walked back to TGI Fridays. On our way there we stopped at a Starbucks hoping they had anything pumpkin flavored, but nope!

Not a great picture, but this is where we sat waiting for Costas

We arrived to find Costas and his girlfriend sitting at a table. His girlfriend teaches English, so it was nice I could talk with her so easily. I was hesitant to order a cheeseburger, which I have not had since coming to Greece because their meat tastes different, but as soon as I heard the waiter say it was 100% beef, I knew what I was getting. And boy was it a good decision...it actually wasn't the best burger I've ever had, but it tasted so American, and so good. Rusty got a steak and potatoes, which was equally American and good. After finishing up at TGI Fridays, we all headed over to get ice cream at a nearby pier. There were nice shops and restaurants along docks that held huge yachts. We went to Haagen Daas and ate our ice cream on stairs overlooking the water.

The Pier

Costas and his girlfriend took us to our hotel and dropped us off. The hotel room was small and instead of having one queen bed, it had two twin beds pushed together, but it was perfect for one night, plus it was free! I looked online trying to plan out our next day, but just decided we would go straight to the Parthenon and figure it out from there. We set our alarm and went to bed...

Hot Springs

Rusty and I decided we better take advantage of the days he has off. He gets Sundays off, which is nice, but we spend those just relaxing at our apartment. Randomly, he will get Monday off as well. After talking about making the most of our time here, Rusty called Mike, the back up setter who is from Greece and asked if he wanted to go to Thermopiles, hot springs nearby that people have told us about. He did, so he picked us up and off we went!   

When we pulled up it reeked of sulfur, as most hot springs do, but the scenery was pretty. The hot springs were back against a mountain covered in greenery. There was a waterfall cascading over black and green rocks. The water was a light blue. We walked further back to another hot spring, which was basically a shallow pool that over flowed and ran down to where the waterfall was. The smell at this hot spring was not bad. The water temperature was perfect, like a hot tub. I have been to a couple different hot springs in Utah and while they were cool to go to once, I didn't really care to go back. The ones in Utah were so hot, I could hardly even stand it. Since they are so hot, the best time to go to them is winter, so if you step out to cool off, you are freezing. For me, there was no enjoyable temperature. 

Just ignore the black athletic tape on Rusty's arm, apparently it's supposed to help his shoulder

So we had the place to ourselves until...Asian invasion. There were about 15 Asian tourists who literally came running to see it. None of them were wearing a swimsuit, one guy was in dress slacks, but that didn't stop him from dipping his feet in. They cracked me up because they had no concept of personal space. Rusty was sitting on a ledge and a lady next to him bent over to put on her shoes and her butt was within inches of Rusty's face haha! They were only there for about 15 min and then they had to catch their charter bus. Mike, Rusty and I sat there for a little while longer and then decided to walk back down to the waterfall. 

Mike and Rusty went in the waterfall and I just took pictures. I had already dried off, and I didn't feel like getting wet again. I am sure we will be back, so I will experience the waterfall next time. 

We got back to our apartment and got ready to go to People. People is a popular coffee shop up in the center, which seems to be the hangout spot for people our age. On the weekends, the patio is packed with people socializing and drinking coffee. They even have a DJ there playing music, which I like because it's music I know. 

Rusty, Jay, and I got to People and met up with Mike, Andreas, the team trainer, and their two friends Alexia and Paula. I was excited to meet Alexia and Paula because they were super nice and seemed a little more relatable than some of our other friends here, aka not as emo. I knew we could be friends after Paula told me she liked Gossip Girl and vaflaki, which is the waffle dessert from Fresco Rusty and I love. Eventually Alexia's sister, her boyfriend, Paula's boyfriend, and Nikitas, the team libero, joined us. 

The napkin that came with my hot chocolate, I thought it was funny

Rusty, Jay and I went to get food at a place right by People since we hadn't had dinner. We came back and got Mike, Alexia, Andreas, and Nikitas and went to Fresco to get the vaflaki dessert. After talking about it, we just had to get one. It was a fun day and I can't wait to see what other adventures Rusty’s days off bring!

(The next day we went back to the hot springs with Mike, Andreas, and Jay)

This is Halloween

We carved our pumpkins! And considering we used butter knives and spoons, I'd say they turned out pretty good! We looked up jack-o-lanterns online and found the faces we wanted to carve. Rusty's goal was to make his pumpkin so scary that our neighbors come tell us it is scaring the children. Surprisingly enough, our neighbors never came by, but Rusty was able to make his pumpkin pretty scary haha.

We stacked the chairs on top of our patio table and put the pumpkins in the chairs, so our pumpkins can be seen by everyone who walks by! People would stop and stare and point. Olga from Eyenet said they were just like the movies. It's so crazy to think that the only time most people here have seen carved pumpkins is in the movies! I am glad that we were able to bring a little bit of America to Greece and I'm pretty sure the Greeks were too!

Caught a girl showing her dad our pumpkins and then taking a pic!

On Halloween Rusty and I dressed up as Greek Gods. Caysen, my nine-year-old brother gave me the idea. When I was Face-timing my family I asked him what we could be for Halloween and he said we could be Achilles and Athena. We decided the costumes would be easy enough to make, so we went to Jumbo, a store kind of like Wal-Mart, to look for white sheets. We weren't able to find sheets, but we did find $1 Christmas decorations that were perfect for Greek crowns, so we bought those, two stretchy headbands, and a glue gun.

We found a few fabric stores on the way to the center and bought the cheapest white fabric we could find. We found two meters of fabric for 10 euro. Rusty had practice on Halloween of course, so as soon as he got home, we got to work on our costumes. The Christmas decorations we got from Jumbo were plastic branches with little gold leaves on them, but the leaves weren't flat and smooth, they were made up of little gold bristles, so they were kind of hard to glue onto our headbands. Once the glue had dried, we wrapped the fabric around ourselves and put on our headbands. I added a gold belt I had. For it being last minute, I think our costumes turned out pretty good! Plus, they only cost $10 each!  

We went trick or treating at Jay's (the other American) apartment right above us. Rusty felt like it may be weird for us to walk around in public in our Greek costumes, so after trick or treating to one apartment, we decided to call it a night haha and watched some Halloween shows. Although it was hard not really being able to celebrate Halloween, it was cool to experience our first American holiday outside of the US, and who doesn't like an excuse to eat candy all day. Rusty and I tried to eat candy only all day, which lasted until lunch haha. We bought snickers, gummy bears, twix, and Greek chocolate. I have to admit I did miss the random candy you get trick or treating and don't really like, but end up eating anyway, like laffy taffys, smarties, and flavored tootsie rolls. Weird I know, but those candies are so nostalgic of Halloween. Well I hope everyone else had a great Halloween and ate lots of candy :)

First Home Game

Rusty had his first home game, which meant the first game I was able to go to! I was super excited to see how his team played, how many fans would come, and how crazy the fans would be. I have heard some crazy stories about fans throwing things at players, but supposedly only a couple of teams have had that problem and they are trying to crack down on it by fining people. I got there and Costas and Panos, Dimitrius' friends, were checking people into the game. I said hi and walked in. There were three policemen who were patting down a guy who walked in before me. Panos said something to them, so I just smiled and walked through. I ran into Vickie, the team's stats girl. She asked where I was sitting and then invited me to go sit down on the court with her. 

There were police all over- there were probably about 10 there. I didn't know if I should feel worried or safe, but I felt safer having them there than not there. There were more people there than I expected. The stands were definitely not full, but I would guess there were around 300 people there. The game started with a bang- literally. Right before the start of the game the rowdy section of the stands, which consisted of about 50 guys between the ages of 16-25, let off some type of firework that made a huge bang; I almost jumped out of my seat. I wasn't expecting that, but apparently it was not a surprise to others, as all the people around me starred at the court as if nothing had happened. People had made and hung signs for Lamia, which was exciting to see. It was weird not hanging any of my own signs, considering I would hang anywhere between 5-10 huge posters at the BYU games...looking back it may have bee a little overkill, but what can I say, I was (or should I say am) a dedicated cougar fan. 

Lamia's avid fans wore matching scarves. Throughout the game they weren't too crazy, but they did have a big drum they would bang on and they would randomly throw receipt paper rolls down onto the opponent's side of the court, which created huge streamers.  The two 10-year-old ball girls would run around and clean it up, so the game could begin again.  One thing that threw me off was that the fans cheer while Lamia serves the ball and go silent while the other team serves. I am use to getting quiet for our team and then loud for the other team during serves, so I'll have to work on this. The game went well; Lamia won in 4 sets! We celebrated by going out for dinner and then headed home.

Coach George- or as I like to call him "Shorge"
(If you've seen Father of the Bride, think Martin Short saying "Shorge Bonks")

Lamia's biggest fan...although after seeing some of the fans crazy antics, that may be debatable