And to continue...

Sunday March 25th

March 25th is Greek Independence Day! (From what, you ask? From the Ottoman Turks in 1821! Which, in case you are wondering, is why the Greeks hate the Turks. They are the "asshole frat boys") So today Lydia and I went to the military parade downtown in Syntagma Square. All of the elite military units were there as well as the tanks, the surface to air missiles and tons of other cool stuff. Basically, the whole Greek Army, Navy and Airforce turned out for this parade. Out side of the Parliament building the Prime Minister and the rest of the important officials sat and watched the parade as well.

After the parade Lydia and I went and explored Athens. We went up to Omonia Square and over to a very untouristy area called Psiri. We explored, but since everything was closed for the holiday we could only look. After that, siesta, as always, and then on to dinner at the Program Director of the Athens Center's house. It was a beautiful traditional Greek house with an amazing central courtyard. She cooked us lots of little finger foods, but afterwards we were still very hungry, so we set out in search of more food. Lydia, Stavros and I ended up finding a great Souvlaki place that is open until 1am on yet another random street a little ways away from our apartments.

Monday March 26th

Our first day of class. We started out the day at 10am for a walk to the highest point in Athens - Mount Linkavantos. Not exactly a difficult climb, but my lazy ass was hurting after all of the walking up and down around Athens for the last three days, so this climb just about killed me. By the time I leave Athens, I will be in the best shape of my life! But the climb was worth every difficult step, because the view was amazing. We could see all of Attica, down to the sea, and up to the mountains. We could even see some of the closer islands off of Athens. If it had been a clear day we could have seen all the way to the Pyrannes (sp?).

After that Lydia, Stavros and I walked to Omonia Square to find lunch. We ended up at this amazing restaurant with great Moussaka and gyros. While we were there it started POURING and so we stayed a while longer to wait out the rain. Then we took the subway back to the Athens center for our afternoon classes. After our afternoon classes we went to the grocery store, then went home and read, and then bed time.

Tuesday March 27th

Our second day of classes began with a walking tour of Ancient Athens, where we saw the Temple of Zeus - the largest of its kind in existence, the Theatre of Dionysis, the Sanctuary of Pan, the road to Pynx (where orators would address the Athenian Senate) with an amazing view of the Acropolis, and finally the Athenian Agora. It was a pretty amazing walk, with some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life.

After that I split off from the group, tried (unsuccessfully) to find a hotel for my parents, and then went to the market after my own little tour of the city. I bought some food, came home and ate it, then went off to class again.

After class Lydia and I came home to take a short nap, which then turned into us passing out for around 5 hours. We woke up at 12:30am and decided to go to find food. We were unsuccessful, so we came home and made lots of pasta with Stavros and just hung out until around 4am.

Wednesday March 28th

This morning is free and I am planning on going out shopping for some cute Athenian clothes and probably another gyro before class at 4:30. I'll let you know what happens!