Wow, it is hard to believe that in 8 days I will be on the plane heading back to Tampa! How has this semester gone by so fast? I, unfortunately, haven’t done as many blog posts as I wanted to this semester, but this post is going to be a brief glimpse of what has happened since my last post accompanied by pictures.
I visited the Parthenon and watched a gorgeous sunset on the hill next to the Parthenon!
The next week I had midterms. Not a fun week, but I survived and made it through all of them,
The weekend after midterms, I went to Budapest. Check out my last blog post!
After Budapest, I came back to Athens for one day and then CYA took us on a school-wide field trip to the Peloponnese. I had a great time on this trip. I have loved the CYA field trips and getting to see more of Greece. In the Peleponnese, the sites we visited Mycenae, Epidarus, Franchthi Cave, Pallamidi Castle, Ancient Sparta, Mystras Byzantine site, Monastary of Pantanassa, and Olympia. The towns we visited were Nauplio, Sparta, and Olympia.
After a week of “school vacation”, it was time to head back to Athens for class.
On Halloween, there was the Olympic Flame Ceremony for the 2017 Winter Olympics in the Olympic Stadium right next to CYA. The flame was lit in Olympia and after leaving Olympia, it traveled across Greece to Athens and from there it will travel to South Korea. It was such a cool experience to see the passing of the torch. I love living right next to the Stadium!
11/3-11/6
I took a weekend trip to Florence, Italy. In Florence, we explored the city: went to the Duomo, the Uffizi, Galleria de Accademia, saw David, and ate some gelato, cannolis, and pasta. (When in Italy!) On Saturday, we took a train from Florence to Pisa and went to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It was a rainy weekend in Italy, so we enjoyed the time under the Tuscan clouds.
I spent the next weekend in Athens. Saturday evening, I went to Mount Lycabettus to see the Sunset. The mountain has a gorgeous view of Athens. You are able to see the Parthenon, the ocean, and the distant mountains. I was even able to see the Stadium and CYA from there. The next day I volunteered at the Authentic Athens Marathon! I was stationed at the 37.5 km (23.3 miles) at the water station, where we picked up water bottles and cheered on the runners. The first runner of the race went by us at 1 hour and 58 minutes!! I enjoyed volunteering at the Marathon, maybe one day I will return to run it! (we will see, or maybe the half marathon in the spring ;))
Fall Break!
I had a great fall break filled with a lot of traveling. Over break, I went to Poznan Poland, Berlin Germany, Krakow Poland, Stuttgart Germany, and Salzburg Austria. For the first five days of break, I went to Poznan, Berlin, and Krakow with my sister Connor, and two of my roommates Hannah and Sarah. Connor, Hannah, and I then flew to Germany on Wednesday and meet up with my family in Stuttgart Germany, where my Uncle Greg lives. It was a great family gathering with nine of us in total (my mom, sister Clare, sister Connor, Grandma, Uncle Greg, Uncle Marc, Aunt Cyndi, and Aunt T). We had the full Thanksgiving dinner with Turkey and all! It was great to see my family and to spend Thanksgiving with them. On Friday of Fall Break, we all drove to Salzburg, Austria, where the Sound of Music was filmed! We walked around the town center and went to the Christmas market on Friday and on Saturday I went on the Sound of Music tour.
On Sunday, it was time to finally head back to Athens. My mom, Aunt T, and Grandma came along to Athens to visit for a few days. We went back to Mount Lybetticus for the sunset. I do love the view from up there as you can see the whole city! It was great having my family in Athens and getting to spend time with them, despite the small interruption of my mom getting her Appendix taken out (all went well).
This past weekend, I took my last weekend trip of the semester to London! I was finally able to see the Peter Pan statue, which I have wanted to see ever since watching Winning London. (Of course, I watched all the Mary Kate and Ashley movies growing up, they are a must if you are a twin ;))
Now I am in the last few days of the semester. It is hard to believe that next weekend I will be home! I had my last day of CYA classes yesterday and now it is time for finals. It is always a busy time at the end of the semester with papers being due and finals. I am sad about my time in Athens coming to an end. I have had a great semester and have really enjoyed my time abroad. It is bittersweet as I do want to go home, (especially to see my pups) but I also don’t want to leave. Now, time to go back to the “study” part of study abroad and write my two finals papers and study for my exams this upcoming week.
Until my next (and most likely final) post
KOK