Atenas

The birthday celebrations continued in Athens the next day. My friend Niki was so sweet and asked the airlines to make an announcement on the plane. Unfortunately, after they agreed they must have forgot. She was really disappointed but I told her how great she was and it was the thought that counts. :)

After our flight was probably the first time we were lost. We got off at the wrong bus stop because we ran into our friends from the program and saw them get off the bus. Turns out they had no idea where they were going and we should have stayed on the bus for another half hour at least. Luckily we found the nearest Metro station and we were able to pick up the same line we were supposed to take after the bus, just a few stops earlier. Then after taking the Metro the wrong way, getting off and going back in the right direction, we finally found our hostel. :) We were pleasantly surprised to find that hostels in Greece are a lot cheaper and a lot cleaner than the ones we had in Italy.

Balcony of our new favorite hostel :)

By the time we finally got settled in, found some food and bought our boat tickets to Mykonos for the next day it was getting dark. We read that sunset was the perfect time to climb Mount Lycabettas and see the perfect view of Athens. Unfortunately, I don't know if my camera has a night view or not and I couldn't get a decent picture. None of my friends did either. The Parthenon was completely lit up and rose much higher from the city than any building around it possibly could. It was strange standing there and thinking about how this building was almost 2442 years old and I was 21 that day. Makes a person feel pretty small, but helps you to see the bigger picture. :)

After much needed showers (we ran up the large hill/small mountain to make it up there by sunset) we went out for dinner. We loved the gyros we had a lunch so much that we decided we wanted to try all the Greek food there was! We all ordered different dishes and shared everything. If you can see our plates, there was not a lot left over.

Birthday dinner with Brigham (left), Niki, Me Marshall and Alex (right)

Make a wish! :)

I did share my cake and ice cream with everyone, but of course I insisted on liking the plate clean afterward. :)

I wish I was joking... :)

We spent the next few days in Mykonos and returned to Athens on the final day of our trip before flying back to Spain. Luckily we had enough time to visit the Acropolis and the market in the morning. Double lucky, Sunday happens to be only day the Acropolis is free. I don't think we could have planned this day any better if we tried.

Parthenon

Love this view of Athens!