Greece was the one and only trip outside Budapest when I studied abroad in my junior year. It was such a bittersweet memory (well, the bitterness comes from the fact that we got kicked out because of the pandemic.) We went to many good spots in Greece, so I just wanted to share with you all.

How did it happen?

A trip consisted of my roommates, Lauren and Maria, Ben, Edison, Zach, and Carl. The trip was abruptly planned, and I booked my ticket 2hrs after Lauren told me this idea.

Going between countries in Europe, especially the Schengen area, is very convenient and casual, just like traveling between states. The round trip from Budapest to Athens cost me 150$, which is actually a bit pricey than usual. Lauren and I were the last two who arrived in Athens because we have something to do on Thursday, so we flew on a Friday.

When we first arrived at the airport, we had no idea to buy train tickets and where the station was. Then we saw a stall selling passes and got a 3-day pass for $22, not bad but worse than Budapest. (Yes, we missed our home already) Then, we got on the train to the inner city. I was pissed because Telekom does not let me turn on the roaming. I would have definitely got lost if I didn’t have my friend with me. We then proceeded to a station close to the downtown of Athens to have lunch with Ethan, Lauren’s friend who was studying abroad in Greece. We had Italian pasta and some pizza, then said goodbye because we were in a rush!

Indeed, we were planning to explore as much as we could, so no time should be wasted :P We headed to Pella inn hostel downtown, met the rest of our friends, and decided to go to the Acropolis hills. We climbed upstairs and reached the resting point.

Taking pictures for a while, we realized that we had to move on before the hills were closed. Too late, it was closed earlier than google said. Although that disappointed us so much, we changed the plan and went to the new Acropolis museum instead.

The museum was very clean, nicely organized, and beautifully designed. We were all impressed by all the statutes, jars, and glass floors that revealed the ancient underground structure.

After spending two good hours in the museum, we went to Philopappos hills, a not so high up hill in the city. It was really dark and scary, but somehow we made it to the top and enjoyed the city light from above.

While walking down, my friends picked some oranges from random orange trees in front of people’s houses. It was funny when Edison saw that and walked away like he did not know them. The first night then was ended with wine and pizza in the square near Pella inn. We drank white, red, and rose wines and had all kinds of pizza. You would think we were full, but we agreed to get ice cream when Ben said, “ICE CREAM?” That was almost the end of our day, but we decided to go to a bar called Brettos. The bar was really pretty and not so crowded. Edison and I got some mocktails, while other people got some high-degree drinks. (They were okay and strong even after three glasses of wine.)

After that, we walked to the hostel and went to bed almost right away, and that was my first day in Athens!

Second day! What did I do? Hmmm… Lauren and I (the two early birds on the trip) woke up at seven and got ready by 7.30. We walked out and got a coffee (mine was a hot chocolate, a coffee sounds better). Then Zach joined us on the trip to the hills. We walked on a bit different path than yesterday, so we saw Hadrien’s library, another ruin in the city. Then saw an all-graffiti-sprayed train running under the bridge. It was very common here that trains are not so clean and painted by some random artists.

We then made a stop at the Agora of Athen, another ruin place that has been a market, halls, and villages in the past. We walked through the ruins joking about what seemed too new and that the number of cats is unusually high. In fact, Greece has lots of cats, and some people even have some cat food with them to worship those cats.

Back to the Agora, there was a museum in the same area of the ruins. It was not big, but still worth a visit. Then, we went to see Acropolis hills which we missed yesterday. Walking up, we could imagine how great this ancient town was. The Parthenon was gorgeous and huge although parts of it are under construction.

I do not remember the names of other buildings, but they were close together and as charming. Walking down to the opposite way of the entrance, we could see the ancient theater of Dionysus, which was one of our favorites as we got to sit and observed people walking by. It was a sunny day, and we succeeded in one of our big goals there.

Going back to the hostel, we met our friends and headed to get lunch. We picked a random gyros restaurant, but it turned out to be so great! The view on the top floor is nice, and we could see the hills from afar.

After that, we did not have a solid plan, and Carl was like, “I want to see the water.” Yes, we then went to the beach by taking that all-painted train I was talking about! We first stopped at the Pireas port where we could see hundreds of ships, but that was not a place Maria and Ben knew from their roommate.

Thus, we walked one more hour to the beach and chilled there for another hour. The beach was so blue, and there were rocks of different colors everywhere. While Ben and Zach were so good at skipping a rock, Lauren, Edison, and I sucked. Maria and Carl got their good shots at their first tries, so I was jealous.

After that, we went back to the hostel and made a stop at the market downtown. We got some good souvenirs, and Zach broke one of them. 

We didn’t do much afterward until dinner time. We went to the same street as all the restaurants yesterday, and went to get some Greek food. However, I got fish and mash potatoes, which did not sound like Greek, but tasted amazing! Not to mention, we, in fact, had one of our friends who stayed by herself, Emily. We got to see her after dinner at the 360 bar. I got a mocktail again, and the view of Athens at night was always breathtaking.

You might think this was such a great ending to my trip, but there was more due to Ben’s crazy idea. We booked a ticket to see an experimental play based on the German novel “Metamorphosis.” The crazy thing was the show was at midnight at a local theater, and that night was its premier. Crazier than that, we decided to spend a good hour listening to Benedict’s voice on the audiobook of this story. At midnight, we went out and waited in line to see the play. We quietly walked in, took a seat, and a heart-shaking song started. A spotlight shone above a girl lying on the cube. She was all naked and dancing like a cockroach. We were surprised by so many things and impressed by how the main character could be so brave to do that. That night the play was discussed by the two theater majors, Ben and Maria. That was a new experience for me, and I love that we decided to do it!

The last day was nothing much but grabbing a coffee and headed to the airport. I was very content and thought we became a bit closer to each other🙃