engineering around the world

Athens: Greece - Days 4 and 5

The rest of my time in Greece provided a large contrast to the country life I experienced in the village of Prosymni. While the kids were at school, Sarah and Yanni devoted their week to being incredible tour guides of Athens. Sarah had English lessons on Monday, so I spent the day exploring Athens with Yanni. It was amazing to finally spend hours of quality time with him, really for the first time in my life. His visits in Chicago are brief every summer (only 3 weeks), and he has many friends to visit from when he went to school there, so spending the day with him was a rare opportunity, and one of the many highlights of my time here.

It isn’t difficult to guess where our first stop was: The Acropolis. I can hardly describe the feeling of walking out of a modern metro station and seeing an ancient Greek structure in the middle of the city, towering over Athens as it has for many thousands of years now. I’m sure there only remain a few places in the world where you can have an experience like that. We made our way to the top, passing an ancient Greek theater along the way where Yanni and Sarah have enjoyed many dates in the summer. As you can imagine, we made our way straight to the top, where I admired the Parthenon and took in the view of all of Athens. Much of the writing on the Acropolis is in ancient Greek, a language Yanni learned when he was in school, so he was able to translate for me. This is lucky, because the language isn’t really taught in Greek schools anymore – there is more of an emphasis on modern Greek. From the top of the Acropolis, he pointed out countless amazing sights all over Athens; St. John’s rock, the Olympic stadium, the prison where Socrates died, and many ancient temples. Yanni apologized for not being “more knowledgeable” about ancient Greece, but I was very impressed with all the information he had to offer, and he seemed to know the answer to any question I could think of. After leaving the Acropolis, we spent a few minutes on the top of St. John’s rock, then wandered the streets of Athens. The cafes and small streets were very familiar to Yanni, because he lived there when he was in college, so it was nice to hear him reminiscing about all his memories with friends at the various cafes. We sat down at one of the cafes for coffee, and I decided to try a Café Frappe, which is a cold Greek coffee drink. Yanni laughed after I ordered it and told me it was rumored to be the same as drinking 27 cappuccinos! (perfect for me). As a student, Yanni would drink one or two Frappes every day. Of course, I loved it. Its like a Starbucks Frappucinno, but much stronger and with less sugar. We had a great time at the café – Yanni told me all about his life in Greece, experience in America, and filled the conversation with little anecdotes that I never had the chance to hear during his visits in Chicago. We laughed a lot, and both really appreciated the fact that we finally had a chance to hang out. After finishing the coffee and watching a street performance, we wandered the streets a little bit more and then headed home. On the walk home, I couldn’t stop noticing the sidewalks – in the middle of every other square on the sidewalk is a huge tree! I took a picture, which Yanni was quite amused by, and he promised to mention my amusement at these sidewalks later in the evening at a political meeting he was attending. So, now all the Greek politicians know about my amusement with the Greeks sidewalks!

For the rest of the evening, I just joined in on the usual routine – playing games with the kids and resting while they did their homework. Yanni also showed me how to prepare “Kokkinesto,” delicious Greek recipe for beef, potatoes, and zucchini (with lots of olive oil of course), which I can’t wait to try cooking myself once I return to France.

On Tuesday, I got to spend the day with Sarah. We went to the Acropolis Museum, where all the statues and friezes, along with many other ancient Greek relics, are on display. Amazingly, none of the statues are behind display glass, they are just displayed in the middle of the museum floor. Many of the statues are missing from Athens (because they are in London, where I will hopefully see the rest of the collection!). After the museum, we stopped for – you guessed it – another coffee, during which we exchanged many travel stories. Then we picked up the kids at school, and it was fun to see their classrooms, art projects, and watch them play on the playground.

 

In the evening, we went to a pastry café on the Pandeli Mountain (where the marbles for the Acropolis came from) to have an early birthday celebration for me! Thanai, one of the Greek cousins, joined us for this celebration. I met her a few years ago when she came to Chicago, but it was great to catch up with her and hear about her life as a med student in Athens. We really had a great time together, and I can’t wait to see her when she comes to Chicago again this summer! I couldn’t imagine a better way to celebrate my birthday than to be surrounded by family, enjoying delicious cake, and sitting on a very historically significant Greek mountain. What a wonderful last evening in Greece.

It is now Wednesday morning, and I am preparing for my trip to London, where I am spending the rest of fall break! I’m excited to see all my friends there, but I wish I had more time in Greece. Being here with the Trikkas family has been such a rare and valuable experience, and now when they come to America during the summers I will know what the rest of their life is like! I will surely come back to Greece as soon as I can. This trip has been everything I hoped for, and more.