Athens: Day 8

Today was a really exciting day in Athens. Before we went to the Acropolis we had a guided bus tour of Athens. On the way we got out and stopped at the 1896 Olympic stadium. Our final stop was the Acropolis, which everyone was really excited about. The best part of it was of course the Parthenon. It was amazing to see what we've been looking at in textbooks for years right in front of our eyes. It was disapointing though that there were scaffolds all over for reconstruction, but we were told that there used to be more in the past so I was grateful for that. We had free time to roam around and explore around where the Parthenon was located. After our tour we went to the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. We didn't have much time at the Acropolis museum, but my favorite part of it was probably seeing the actual statues from the original Parthenon. At the National Archaeological Museum of Athens it was hard to see everything that day, so we had to narrow it down. My favorite was the Boy Jockey and Horse. I think it's one of the main pieces of Hellenistic art that shows how it all evolved. The motion of the horse and boy is so realistic and the artist captured the emotions so well. After our busy day, we tried to find a good place to get some gyros and sit down at the same time. A few of us stopped at a restaurant, but we soon found out they weren't the famous gyros that everyone had been so excited about getting, so we were pretty bummed with our meal. However, after we did some intense shopping which made up for the not so great meal!