Happy Thanksgiving from Athens, Greece!

Well, I finally arrived here in Athens last night at about 6:30. After being on a train from 10:30-4:30 am, having a 4 hour delayed flight (...the Athens airport was on strike ...) and wandering a bit around Athens to meet Ashley, I was stoked to get settled in. As usual, it has already been a blast to be with one of my closest friends. Upon arriving, I walked down a huge street in Athens, and found the stadium from the 1896 Olympics. Seeing this was AMAZING for numerous reasons. A year ago I took an ancient/modern Olympics course from a classics professor at Iowa. This stadium is the first stadium of the modern Olympics, when Coubertin was the IOC president. Yeah, freaking AMAZING to see this part of sporting history. The stadium was originally built in 4th century B.C. Obviously, it has been through restoration throughout time, (including massive reconstruction previous to the 1896 games) but it is still pretty sweet to see it. It is the only stadium to be made out of 100% white marble. During the 2004 Athens summer Olympics, it was where the archery competition was held, and where the Marathon finished. Sweetness.

This morning, I woke up early to go with Ashley and her roommates to class at the Agora. Walking through the museum there was really neat, as well as seeing the actual remains of the site. I was standing on and near things that were built in the B.C. era. Crazy. Agora is an ancient site that to my understanding, was a pretty important part of ancient Athens. It was a marketplace, in addition to a social and political gathering spot. Additionally, numerous roads intersected at the Agora. 87 B.C., the Romans destroyed it (shocking...the Romans destroy something?!) and it was rebuilt again in the 3rd or 4th century A.D. (I think those dates are right...). It is in a really neat location. When you walk in, you look up and see the Acroplis perched upon the huge hill, and to the right is the temple of Hephaistos, which was AWESOME to see as well.

Tonight, we are cooking a huge Turkey and having a feast here, after doing more exploring. I am pretty fortunate to have a friend here who is a classics major because she knows all the history of everything we see, plus knows the fun spots. Tomorrow, we are going to a huge mall and the 2004 Olympic Football stadium. Sweetness. Saturday and Sunday are going to be the extreme tourist days, going to museums, the Acropolis , going up and around the stadium, down to the beach (its not super warm here but its sunny and a lot warmer than the UK) and going out for some dinners. In addition to pretty outstanding Greek remains, there are also numerous Roman remains here. Looking forward to the adventures ahead!

As usual, I miss you all a ton and have an amazing Thanksgiving :)