Chris Hughes and the Best Spring Break Ever: Part 1

For spring break this year a group of seven of my friends and I went to Greece to see what it had in store for us. We started in Athens, the birthplace of democracy.

First thing I saw in Greece (it gets better, I promise)

We spent a very quick two days there, the first of which was very relaxed. We got to the city, checked in to our hostels, grabbed some food and wandered around our neighborhood. The first thing that really struck me about Greece was the amazing hospitality everyone shows. Every time we walked down the street, owners of restaurants would call out to us with offers of free beer, free ouzo, free dessert if we just ate at their restaurants. And after we did finally choose somewhere to eat they would show us the kitchen, all the food being made, the whole atmosphere of the place was just so welcoming. It was a good start to be offered free things, let’s just say that.

We got to the heavy sightseeing the next day. Our first stop was, of course, the Acropolis. Luckily it was a short walk away from our hostel (10 minutes. Amazing location). We got in for free because we are all students, and began our tour of one of the most culturally rich places on the planet. First stop was the Theater of Dionysus, which had beautiful stonework.

We kept walking and came upon this Amphitheatre, the first ever built. Its full name is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, and is still used today as an entertainment venue.

We kept heading up the hill and made our way through the Propyla and out on to the top of the Acropolis, where we finally saw the Parthenon!

Propyla

Parthenon!

(along with the Pandroseion, temple to a different goddess)

After getting our fill of the awesomness of 2500 year old ruins we headed across the street to the Temple of Zeus, which is also exceedingly ancient.

Temple of Zeus from the Acropolis

Temple of Zeus from not the Acropolis

Hadrian's Arch

After that our next stop was the Panathenaic Stadium, the original site of both the Ancient Olympic Games as well as the first Modern Olympics, held in Athens in 1896!

We got a free audio tour with entry which told us a ton of stuff about the Stadium which I don’t really want to bore you with here. I’ll give you brief backgrounds on what these pictures capture, however.

The names of the two guys who got the Modern Olympic Games started are inscribed here

These are the thrones the Royalty would sit in at competitions. Now it's just Jorge and Adam

There's a slight curvature to the seats to 1) Get more seating and 2) Give everyone a better view of the stadium

In the tunnel the competitors would walk through to the stadium

After all that we walked back to the hostel, and walked through the National Gardens on the way.

Zappeion. Read my mom's comment below for purpose

Gardens!

Then grabbed dinner by our hostel and walked around the pedestrian district circling the Acropolis.

The Odeon (w/ Acropolis in BG) at night

The next morning we got up bright and early (for real this time, it was 4 am) to grab a cab down to the Piraeus, the port of Athens, and make our way to the beautiful island of Santorini! Despite getting up so incredibly early we still had to sprint on to the boat when we arrived at the port (no trip is complete without an all-out sprint to catch your given mode of transportation). And we were off, on our 8 hour ride to Santorini!