GREECE.Day 1 ( Sunday)

       
OUR CULTURAL CRADLE
After some rest we had breakfast and we left the hotel to have enough time to visit everything we wanted to. We took the tube and went to the Acropolis Station. The Acropolis is one of the most well-known tourist attraction all around the world. Acropolis means "the highest part of the city" in Greek, which has two clear functions, one defensive and the other one was containing the most important religious buildings as well as personalities. Some of the most famous buildings are the "Propylaia", a monumental gateway. The temple of Nike who is the goodness of victory in Greek mythology, the Erechtheion which was dedicated to Atenea and Poseidon and the Parthenon, a former temple dedicated to Atenea who is considered the patron of Athens. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece. On the hillside we could find two theatres: Odeon of Herodes Atticus and Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus. From that point we also had some breath-taking views of the city. In spite on not being into History I believe no one could remain unmoved by this wonderful place.

       After that we moved to the Acropolis museum where visitors can have an insight of what are the findings that had been made in the Acropolis, even though some of the most exceptional pieces are abroad due to spoliation made in the latest centuries. Some of the pieces that we could see in the museum are pots, sculpture, crateras, etc. Luckily there was an exhibition of some sculptures which were in the USA and were here for a few months. Something interesting is that through the floor you could see the foundations of ancients buildings, although it is logical as we are talking about Athens I found it curious.

      



        The last monument was the Hadrian Arch and the Olympian Zeus which was the biggest temple in Roman Times. After picking our luggage we went to the train station where we first met a group of students of the Erasmus project. They were from Lithuania, and after a short talk we went into the train.

       When we arrived at Larissa where we were warmly welcomed by our hosting families, and we started to get to know each other. Despite feeling tired, we all introducedeach other . We had dinner in the Greek houses or food to take away and then went to a nearby park where we could talk to the others students. I must say that even though we were all a little bit shy to start talking after a while we hadalready done new friends which was something great and that wouldn’t have been  possible without the cooperation of everyone involved.