Athens

Well, it's raining here in Athens, putting a damper on our day here. Oh well. My friend Lauren and I arrived in Athens on Tuesday afternoon. We took the day to settle in and aquaint ourselves with the area. On Wednesday, we headed out to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Acropolis. Both of these were amazing. It's so cool to be in a city with so much history. Especially since we learn about the Parthenon and such in school, but never in a million years imagine ourselves seeing it with our own eyes. On Thursday, we went to the Theatre of Dionisos (that looks like it's spelled wrong, but that's what my map told me, so that's what we're leaving it as). We also went shopping as there are many stores right outside our hotel. Yesterday (Friday) we headed out the Roman and Ancient Agoras. These used to the be the market areas of the time. The ancient agora led to the Temple of Hephaistos. I'm not really sure who that person was, but the temple was pretty cool. Today we saw the the original olympic stadium and then it started to rain so we headed back to our hotel. There's a restraunt right outside our door that gives us free drinks and deserts and a discount on our food, so Lauren and I have eaten there for just about every meal. When we walk up to the restraunt they spot us and call us "friends" and escort us to a table. We got a picture with the guy who we think is the manager, but the entire restraunt crew is funny and really nice. Our hotel also has a good looking receptionist, so I made sure I got my picture with him. He's very nice and helpful, not to mention nice to look at every day as we're coming and going. I'm so in love with Athens. There's no words to describe how I feel about the city. Tomorrow we're headed to Thessoloniki and I'm not sure what sort of internet I'll have there, so this might be my last update until I get back on Friday night. Hope everyone is having a good week and enjoying spring.

Czech Republic

This past weekend, I went to the Czech Republic. I flew into Prague and then had to take a train to a city called Olomouce (pronounced ol-um-oats). I have a friend who's studying abroad there, so she met me at the train station at around 1 am on Saturday morning. That day we walked around the city and and saw basically everything there was to see there, which is a bunch of churches and fountains. It's interesting that they have churches galore because the Czech Republic is the country with the most Atheists in Europe (and maybe the world...but I'm not sure). A week before I arrived in Czech Republic the country had just ousted their current government through a coup (I think). Many of the young people in Czech want Communism to come back to the country. It'll be interesting to see what happens with that as the prime minister from Czech Republic is the EU president until June. It will be interesting to see what happens if they become communist and how that affects their member status in the EU. I missed my flight from Prague to London and had to sit in the airport for about 6 hours to get another flight back to London on Sunday.