Shopping in Greece

St. George (the hill)
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Thursday morning we once again began our day with Starbucks as we desperately needed caffeine to make it through the day. We then spent the majority of Thursday shopping! Yes…Athenian shopping is fabulous as there is a wealth of local markets and tourist stands, not to mention jewelry shops. Needless to say we spent more than we should have, though to be fair both of us purchased many gifts for family and friends! By 3:00 p.m. we met up with Scotti, Skyler, and Kari. Together we walked to the National Gardens. Inside there was a small petting zoo and luckily enough for us we had the opportunity to see peacocks in heat. Spring = mating season. Let me just go ahead and say that seeing the male peacock in heat is an interesting experience. Out of no where they just vibrate those crazy long feathers. Anyway, moving forwards. Next we walked towards St. George’s Cathedral. While walking by nose and eyes began to burn and I could not stop sneezing. Several others although began sneezing and noticing a burning sensation. We had no idea what it could be. However, we did know that large demonstrations were going on in the city as all afternoon we had see hundreds of police. Later we found out that some of the crowds had to be tear gassed and we figured out that some of the gas must have drifted upwards via the wind towards where we were walking. Anyway, just a random side note. It is interesting that since being in Europe we have seen many demonstrations from the universities as Europe is attempting to shift from free university schooling to privately paid schooling. Back to Saint George’s: while it was quite a walk up but once we arrived the view was absolutely fabulous. We could see the entire city from up on the hill. We stayed up there to watch the sun set over the city. It was again absolutely beautiful. There is something to be said about Grecian sunsets. They’re just extraordinarily beautiful. Afterwards we once again ate dinner at the same restaurant as it had treated us well. Then by 10:30 it was time for Elizabeth, Scotti and I to head to the airport. We spent Thursday night in the airport sleeping on the floor as well as chairs pushed together. The sad thing was it basically the same quality of sleep we received in the hostel. We departed Athens at 6:05 a.m. and arrived in Heidelberg via train around 11 a.m. Greece was an absolutely amazing experience. I was blown away. I am so very blessed to be able to spend spring break over in Europa!