I have learnt the art of begging while trying to convince my parents, I swear!!!! Well, this time I was making these attempts to be allowed to go to Athens, Greece on a fieldtrip, with the rest of my class. My class, which consists of merely 10 people, had decided that if I didn’t go they would all go and carry out a protest in front of our house. But that situation never came up, as my wonderful teachers talked my parents into letting me go. So, there I was, off to Greece, for my first fieldtrip abroad!!
The first thing that struck me as we landed in Athens was that the Taxi drivers are extremely clever and know how to trick their passengers. An official from the airport warned us against these ’’badnaam’’ taxi drivers, so we decided to take a bus. Well, after waiting for like half an our at the bus stop, while other people stared at a bunch of noisy high school freaks (my teachers were trying to disown us as much as they could!), the bus finally came and we all boarded it with a LOT of hue and cry!
The bus dropped us off near our hotel. As I took charge of my luggage, walking down a street, I couldn’t help noticing that the roads seemed amazingly like a cleaner version of Delhi roads. I felt quite at home, when I saw the ancient tooti phooti buildings around.
After settling in to our hotel ( Hotel President: a plush 4 star which was NOT at all expensive) , we set out to search for food as the pigs (a.k.a Boys) of our class could not think beyond that at that moment. We found a restaurant near the hotel, and believe me, I?ve NEVER eaten such good food at such a low price!! I highly recommend a Greek Salad, tzatziki ( a type of Greek sauce) and a plate of Fried Chicken! Yummy!!
For a week after that, we visited various landmarks of Athens and also visited some BEAUTIFUL islands of Greece. Our trip had been organised by the conference we were attending ( Model United Nations), but I recommend taking guided tours to see every important location of the city. Here?s a list of the places we visited:
The Plaka is the town centre where you can find many Café and shops, at pretty reasonable rates. Our teachers just let us walk around freely in this area, and I must say that this is the perfect place to buy any souvenirs or do any shopping.
The Acropolis is a hill on which four of the City landmarks are located: The Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena Nike. All of these are ancient structure, which are so grand that one is amazed by their structures and the fact that they still remain as marvellous as ever! From this site, you can nearly see the whole of Athens, and the sight is absolutely breathtaking!! And for people who are interested in ancient art, there?s also a museum with ancient Greek Artefacts. Our tour guide included this, but I didn?t quite enjoy it since our guide was the most boring lady ever who would even make the most interesting facts sound like the dullest thing on earth!!!
Sintagma (Constitution) Square is a grand central place near the Plaka. There?s a metro station at this square and this usually from where we went to the Plaka. This square is magnificent at night with its amazing lighting and the metropolitan atmosphere. Great place to view some night life?which we couldn?t witness as we were ?achhe bacche!!? and had to return to the hotel with our teachers!
The rest of the days we visited places around Greece. We took a cruise to Three of the Greek islands which are Breathtaking!!! I more thing I would advise is that one should always keep a map handy when walking around Athens. Even though most of the people are extremely helpful, one may have problems finding their way around since most of the street signs are in Greek, with the Greek script!! We got lost twice just because we couldn?t read these signs!! Otherwise, many people speak English and getting around is not too much of a problem. So overall Athens is a MUST see, and I wouldn?t miss any chance in the world to go and visit it again!!
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