Wow! Hard to believe I have been in Athens for roughly 7 weeks! It has gone by so fast and so much has happened since my last blog post.
In a nutshell: CYA orientation week ended with a school trip to Delphi, I went on a school trip to Crete for 6 days, a day trip to the temple of Poseidon for a gorgeous sunset, hiked Mount Olympus! took a weekend trip to Meteora, the land of the floating monasteries, and have explored Athens.
Here are some highlights and pictures of the past 7 weeks.
Orientation ended with a weekend field trip to Delphi. We visited the site of Delphi and the oracle and stayed at a lodge in the mountain where we watched Mamma Mia outside at night #wheninGreece.
CYA then took us on a 5-day long field trip to the Island of Crete. To get to Crete, we took an overnight ferry. In Crete, we visited the Palace of Knossos, several museums, the cave of Zeus, the island of Spinalonga, and hiked the Imbros Gorge. Crete is a beautiful Island!
Arkadi MonasteryThe next weekend, I took a bus from Athens to Cape Sounion. At Sounion, we went to the Temple of Poseidon, went swimming in the Aegean Sea, and watched a gorgeous sunset (one of my favorite ones).
Two weekends ago (September 29th, 30th), I hiked Mount Olympus, the highest point in Greece. It was an amazing experience to have especially with the gorgeous views. The hike may not have been the easiest hike, but it definitely worth it! On Friday we took a bus from Athens to Olympus and then hiked up to the refugee where we would stay the night. The next morning, we hiked up to the summit. It was a bit chilly, with it even snowing while we were at the Summit. After that, we then hiked back down to the base. We spent 23 hours on Mount Olympus. One of my favorite things was the dog at the summit (aka Trail mix, Guardian of Olympus, or Hera reincarnate) who then followed us down to the lodge area. Unfortunately, no Zeus sightings while at Olympus. 🙂
This past weekend, I took a train from Athens to Meteora, Greece. Meteroa is the land of the floating monasteries where monasteries are built in/on top of the mountains. There used to be 24 monasteries/nunneries built in the 14th-16th century, and today there are still 6 operating. While at Meteroa we took a sunset tour and a hiking tour from the town of Kalampaka up to the monasteries. It was so cool to see the monasteries in the mountains.
Oh, I can’t forget about the Study Part in Study abroad 🙂 We really do go to class (but only Monday-Thursday 😉 ). Classes are all going well and I am enjoying them. Midterms are next week so that shall be a fun week.
So far I am loving Athens and Greece and am looking forward to the new adventures to come! Until next time! ( Which will be a bit sooner than this time 🙂 )