Man's best friend, indeed
Laura Butterbrodt
Multimedia Journalist
Bulgaria Week 7
February 26-March 4, 2018
Friday, March 2
1:15 p.m.
Hello from Athens!! My week has been so busy with preparations for my trip that I haven’t had time to blog yet. Let me get you up to speed:
It snowed! A lot! Blago got a good covering of snow Sunday night, which continued to accumulate through the week. A lot of students weren’t happy about it because we’ve had such warm, beautiful weather, but to me it finally felt like home! I do also enjoy the warm weather, though, so I won’t be too upset when it returns.
Blago Snow
Thursday was Baba Marta Day, which is a celebration in Bulgaria on the first of March that signifies the coming of spring. Legend says Baba (Grandma) Marta (March) is a grumpy old woman, so people celebrate to make her happy. People exchange red and white bracelets to signify health (red) and happiness (white). When you see a stork or the first blooming tree of the year, you take off your bracelet and tie it to the blooming tree. We all look so festive with our striped bracelets around our wrists!
Lea cooked us a German dinner (with chocolate pudding) Wednesday night
Beer pong/karaoke at Piano Bar Thursday night. We left the bar at 2 and left for the airport at 3! Living my best life
Maddie, Pari, Nisha, Sindija and I left Blago at 3 a.m. to get to the airport, and we had arrived in Athens by 8:30. We got to our Airbnb by about 10:30 and immediately went to sleep. I felt a little guilty sleeping right away on our big trip, but we were all so tired that our day would not have gone well without some rest. I think we are going to go get some lunch as soon as the other girls wake up.
Athens Metro
Sunday, March 4
9:45 p.m.
I am EXHAUSTED!! We did so much in just three days!
Friday, after our nap time, we left to get some food because we were starving. Tripadvisor told us to try a traditional Greek restaurant, but it was almost all seafood and we aren't big seafood fans. We ended up just getting some appetizers or salads to tide us over, but since it was already 3 in the afternoon we knew we would have supper soon. I got chickpea balls, which were basically just falafel and they were really good!
A cute lil nut shop called NutCase
After we had lunch we planned to go to the archaeological museum, but it was already closed so instead we just took the metro to Monastiraki, which is a square that has lots of tourist shops and is close to a lot of the points of interest. That was where we first saw some ruins, and it finally started to feel like we were in Athens. After that we went toward Mount Lycabettus, which is the highest hill in Athens. There was a Funicular to take us to the top, but climbing the hill just to get the the trolley was such hard work!
At Monastiraki
Shops at Monastiraki
I tried to get a picture of all the stairs we had to climb to get to the trolley but I was too out of breath to get a clear shot
View from our climb up the hill BEFORE we took the trolley all the way up
View from the VERY top of Mount Lycabettus
We decided to walk down the hill, which was a little further than we thought. We didn't know where we were, but I was never that worried about being lost because I knew if we found a metro station then we would be able to figure out where we were. We stopped into a restaurant along our way down the hill, where I got pasta with buffalo and the best wine I've ever tried. I think it was a sparkling moscato, but it was so sweet! Loved it.
We went home after supper and I don't think any of us had any trouble falling asleep. It was such a big day!
Saturday morning we got up and went to brunch at a restaurant called Estrella. It was SO GOOD!!! I got a breakfast pizza, but the standout dish was the peanut butter and jelly pancakes that Pari ordered. If anyone ever goes to Athens, I HIGHLY recommend!! We ordered so much food we couldn't fit it all at our table. What a great start to the day!
Pari's peanut butter and jelly pancakes
Nisha's black forest pancakes
Pari's matcha latte
Once we were nice and full we started exploring. We walked from the restaurant and found some churches and the historic district of Plaka, which is a really great place for tourist shopping.
An adorable street performer who was stealing all the girls' hearts
We kept walking until we stumbled upon the Temple of Olympian Zeus. It was the perfect day for a walking tour! It was about 67 degrees (19 degrees for my Celsius friends) and the sun was shining. It was sooo nice!!
Slav squat
Lol hate myself
Next we got on the "Hop on hop off" bus that my dad suggested we check out. It was a great idea! We were able to see all the big sights around the city without having to navigate or walk, and we could get off any time we wanted and get back on later.
We stopped at the archaeological museum this time, which was really interesting and full of artifacts, but it was pretty overwhelming and there were a lot of really similar artifacts. The highlight for me at the museum was when I got Maddie in trouble because I was pretending to grope a statue's butt. AMAZING.
The infamous butt (nice, right????)
Other sights from the bus tour:
We witnessed a protest against the Turkish president in front of the parliament building
We wanted to go to the Acropolis next, but after we climbed up a narrow, winding path between a lot of very Greek-looking houses, we realized the Acropolis closed at 3 p.m. Maddie and I got separated from Pari, Nisha and Sindija for a little bit, but we regrouped and went to a Greek bistro for dinner. I got chicken souvlaki that came with pita and tzatziki. Delish!!
Our plan was to go back to the apartment and nap before checking out the Athens nightlife, but once we got back we didn't feel like getting up again. It was probably for the best because we were so tired that we needed as much sleep as we could get before our last day in the city.
Our morning started out a little rough because there were some pickpocketers on the metro, but nothing was stolen and we were pretty well prepared. Sindija was just a little shaken up from it but we were all safe. We headed to Acropolis, but admission was free to everyone because it was the first Sunday of the month and it was SO CROWDED.
We were going to go to the Acropolis museum, but since admission was free it was super crowded and we weren't about that. Instead, we got onto another hop on hop off bus that went to the beach. It was so nice to be at the beach! We got off to get lunch, and the restaurant was really nice. I decided I better try seafood since we were on the beach of Greece and that's not an opportunity I get too often, so I ordered shrimp spaghetti. The service at the restaurant wasn't great because Maddie never got the food she ordered but we didn't have time to ask for it because our bus was coming back to pick us up. We asked four times for the bill before we got it and we only had about five minutes to check out the beach. It was still really nice to go though, and we had an open-top bus so we were able to get some sea air and see all the beaches.
When we returned to the city, Nisha and Sindija split from me, Maddie and Pari to go to an art museum. Maddie, Pari and I just walked around and explored the Plaka/Monastiraki area. It was one of the highlights of my weekend because we stumbled upon so many things we didn't even know existed! We got to see the bustling streets and restaurants of people out for Sunday night dinner and we saw some ruins at dusk with the sun setting behind them. We also found the flea market that we had been looking for earlier in the day!
We ended our perfect evening with gyros, because we couldn't go to Greece without getting gyros.
Then we headed back to the apartment and now are just relaxing and packing before we leave early tomorrow morning back to Bulgaria. It was such an incredible weekend! I have wanted to go to Greece for as long as I can remember, and I even chose AUBG because it was so close to Greece. I would love to go back, and I still really want to see Santorini! I already know going back to school will be hard, but I only have to get through three days of class before SPRING BREAK!!
