Our Journey to Greece! Posted on January 13th, 2013 by Maggie King

The Olympic Quest left Minneapolis at 3:00pm on Saturday the 12th and arrived in Amsterdam around 6:00am on Sunday the 13th.  The flight was largely uneventful and not particularly restful for many of us students!  There were movies to watch, games to play, and radio to listen to to distract us during the flight.  After a 6ish hour layover in Amsterdam, we boarded the plane around 12:00 noon on Sunday and arrived in Athens at around 4:00 later that afternoon.  This flight was much more restful for most of us, but also less entertaining due to the lack of any kind of distractions.  This flight, however, was more eventful in the sense that we went back UP into the air when we just about to land!  Apparently, it’s not a good idea to land a plane when there is another plane on the runway!  Our quick-thinking pilot saved the day!  After taking a loop around Athens, we landed safely about 10 minutes later!

Once off the plane, we retrieved our luggage and met our guide, Yanni, and bus driver Dimeytri, and boarded the bus bound for the Acropolis Museum.  Much to our dismay, we didn’t get a chance to take a shower, brush our teeth, or change clothes.  Being awake for such a long time with no shower/toothbrush is something we are not used to!!

After an hour on the bus, we reached theAcropolis Museum after picking up another tour guide, Aleki.  She showed us around the museum and told us the history of many of the statues and artifacts.

We were only able to take pictures on the third floor of the museum, but saw many, many more coolinscriptions, pots, vases and statues. The physical layout of the museum and arrangement of artifacts was meant to resemble the areas of the Acropolis in which the artifacts were found.  So, statues and pottery pieces found at the top of the Acropolis were on the third floor of the museum whereas artifacts found on the slopes of the Acropolis were found on the lower, slanting floors of the museum.  There were sections of the floors inside and just outside of the museum that were glass so that the ancient ruins/cities below could be viewed.  During the day, excavators can be seen through these floors working at uncovering more buildings and treasures.  After half-an-hour of free-time to explore the museum, we boarded the bus for a very short ride to our hotel, the Titania.  We were all absolutely starved by the time we returned the hotel and finally ate dinner at 8:30.  After dinner, we had “class” where Greg and Eric taught us about Modern Greece!  As we speak, we are enjoying a glass of wine in the “Olive Garden” atop our hotel.  The view of the Acropolis is fantastic!  Well, our hour of wifi is running out, and we haven’t hardly slept in two days, so off to bed we go!  Goodnight, Gustavus and Minnesota!!

Maggie and Sara