Athens pt2

My Trip To Athens 

The remainder of my trip after the taekwondo games 

So, as was mentioned in the past blog, I went to Athens for some Taekwondo games a week ago. We booked our tickets for 4 days as we didn't know when we were playing our matches. We all played on the first day which meant we had another 2 and a bit left at our disposal. 

Thursday afternoon

Our matches were on Thursday afternoon and since we only had 4 games and started early in the morning, we ended up leaving the stadium at 3 ish. This meant we had the rest of the day free. We didn't want to stay in and thought since we're in Athens we might as well do something nice. We wanted to go to allou fun park but we canceled that as it was raining and wasn't going to be worth it. So we went to 'The Mall Of Athens' and had a blast. 

Firstly, we went shopping and shopping thrill's me as I'm not used to seeing big shops and I just adore large spaces and people as its just different to our little village. After that, we went to the food court and I had Chinese! Well tbh, it was a bit crap but I was happy eating something other than greek food...

After we ate I went and got an Ice cream because why the heck not (?) and we went to the arcade room. We tried a 9d virtual reality simulator and it was truly an electrifying experience and it was so cool and funny as I legitimately thought I was in there, the game and was screaming aloud because it was a thriller. 

(for those of you who don't know what the above is, it is a simulator in which you can either sit or take part in a chosen game and you wear this mask that makes you think you are actually in the game or video.)  

As we finished that, we went for an eventful game of bowling in which I discovered it was nothing like the Wii games and I was absolutely dreadful at it but I love it anyway:)

Friday

Friday came and I had arranged to meet up with one of my friends, who comes to Petra for the summer, in the center of Athens, Monastiraki. We got up and we got the Metro 6 stations down but got there early and we had another hour to kill until we met up. My dad was with me and we saw a rooftop restaurant that belonged to a hotel in which we stayed a few years back and remembered that the view was worth going up there for. We were not disappointed. We had a scrumptious breakfast whilst admiring the stunning and impressive view of the ancient Acropolis. 

The Acropolis alone, you could say, defines Athens. For me its the feeling of heritage and fondness for the historical culture of my country, I time travel to the Classical period in which it was built and images gush through my mind of all the significant figures of ancient Greece who helped lay the foundation of democracy, poetry, philosophy and so many more. But, everyone knows Athens that way, so being an admirer of my countries history, I think of more than just those things. I think of the wars that happened, the Persian, The Peloponnesian and how the Greeks fought against and with one another and how all of that ended up entwining to one proud country. These are just a few words about this subject but I won't delve into it further. 

After we finished our breakfast, I went for a walk with one of my teammates, looked around the shops and had a laugh. Then my friend arrived and we went to her sister's uni in another place in Athens near Gazi. She studied at the agricultural university of Athens and we were amused by her choosing to show us the sheep and cattle they bread.
We went for a hot cocoa afterward and then I took the metro back home. 

Shortly after we went to the McArthurGlen designer outlet for a wonder.  It was very nice and decorated beautifully but the weather was bad and we couldn't do all that we wanted.

Saturday 

I stayed that night at my cousin house as they invited me, and I had planned to meet another one of my friends who is also a close family friend in Glyfada, quite a nice area of Athens for morning coffee. We went to this lovely place called "balux". After there she decided to take me to the city center to do some shopping. I bought a nice dress for New years eve and we had a Starbucks which I hadn't had for ages! 

I went back to my cousins and we went out for some pizza.

I flew back home the next day early in the morning. I got home on the 24th and in 2 days I was leaving again for a family holiday, which I will be writing about soon, and that's why I'm so late on writing about this blog. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Tina x