Day One

Monday, June 27th

Hello from Athens!

Today is my first day in Athens and I am very, very excited. When the plane was landing all I saw was the Ikea and I thought “yup, I’m in Europe”. I landed with Kelsey and Kenny and was very sleep deprived. I swear I only slept MAYBE thirty minutes on the plane, but the flight attendant told me I was asleep the entire time. She lied to me. I was resting my eyes because I took NyQuil before my flight, thinking it would knock me out, but all it did was paralyze my body and make it so I couldn’t keep my eyes open while I sat there and listened to a ton of babies cry. She was wrong. I’m tired today.

ANYWAYS, I was pretty nervous about vibing with people on this trip, but I seemed to hit it off with people right away. I made plans to get my nose pierced with Jordan right away and bonded with Katie about how long it took for our room to be ready (seriously, our room wasn’t ready by the time people were supposed to be downstairs and showered, but it’s all good). We went to Smile for lunch, and I had my first Greek gyro. It was different from all gyros I had ever had (obviously), but one thing i really noticed was that it didn’t have lamb on it. I think every single gyro I have had in America had lamb on it, which I really enjoy, but pork is cool too! I did have to take off a few of the potatoes because to be honest I’m not ~huge~ on potatoes, unless they are in potato chip form, but it was still A+!

After this we went on a little hike (walk? Uphill battle? What do I call that?) to a spot where you can see all of Athens. It was remarkable! I was pretty out of breath by the top, like everybody else was, but it was definitely worth it and only got me more excited for the trip.

After a little time to ourselves in our room (during which Jordan, Madi and myself tried and failed to find a place to get nose piercings) we had drinks of the hotel rooftop bar which casually overlooks this random ancient piece of architecture, then we went to an incredible dinner with great food and wine. I really started to feel like I was getting along with people, which was only an added plus. After dinner, we all pretty much went and passed out in our rooms. Ready for my first full day in Greece!