July 15 – Athens

At 9am the sun was already shining brightly and burning down on our backs as we made the 6,000 mile trek up to the Acropolis.  We all had to bring our own bottles of water and I was wishing I had brought my sweat towel once I stepped out of the hotel.  At first Andrea was leading us the complete wrong way up the huge hill to the Acropolis, but she eventually called some random person and got the right directions.  We climbed some steps and finally met our tour guide and started our way up to the sacred temples of the Acropolis.

While we were walking up to the top, we took many stops along the way because of the heat and our tour guide told us about the history of Athens, Greece and the Acropolis.  There were so many people who were there at the same time as us and it was tough to find places to walk and take pictures.  Once we got to the top we took pictures and walked around the ancient ruins of the Parthenon and temple of Athena and Poseidon.

Everyone was exhausted on our way down from the Acropolis.  We met Andrea down in the old town of Athens and walked along the main street and marketplace.  It was awesome and really cool to see where people shopped way back when.  We also visited one of the best preserved temples in Athens.

Solicitors attacked us right away as we sat down to eat.  I gave in to the sunglasses guy and bought some awesome Gucci sunglasses for cheap.  We ate real chicken gyros and then we all split up and went shopping.

Over the time we had, we all bought a bunch of souvenirs for our family, friends, and ourselves.  We then met up with everyone at two o’ clock and headed back to the hotel.  We then had free time to go back shopping or rest.

Many of us went back out shopping and I got stamps to send about a billion postcards (dang they’re expensive).  We then met back at the hotel at 5:30 so Curt could bring us to an ice cream place and treat us to gelato.  It was awesome.  Then we got back to the hotel and rested some more.  We then met back in the lobby at 7 to catch some cabs and drive down to our match, which was located in the middle of the city.

Everyone played awesome, even after a long day of walking and getting fried from the sun (Ellen).  We ended up beating the Greek local team in three sets but still played two more games.  We were all beyond tired after that and still went out to dinner after at 11:00pm.  We didn’t get back to the hotel until 1am and we all collapsed and went to bed right away. 

Overall the day was AWESOME.

By  Natalie Walseth