Hi all,

Continuing my post last week, today, I would like to share about my experiences in Greece!

The cities I have been to in Greece were Athens, Santorini and Mykonos. Athens, undoubtedly, is the capital of Greece, which is full of history. It is the largest city of Greece and is one of the world’s oldest cities, just like Rome. I’m glad that I can visit two famous historical capital of Europe in one trip and to experience two ancient cultures, the ancient Greek and ancient roman. The famous Acropolis of Athens is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The word “acro” means “highest point” or “extremity”, while “polis” means “city” and this explains why Acropolis is on the hill of Athens. It is hard to imagine that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth    millennium BC. Nowadays, there are not so many archaeological remains. Parthenon, the old temple of Athena and the temple of Olympian Zeus are probably the most famous ones. Not forgetting that Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, I also visited the Olympic Stadium, which was renovated in time for the 2004 Summer Olympics. The sports complex was a great architecture and I have taken a couple of nice photos there!

The Greek government has been trying to protect and restore Acropolis.

Part of the Athens Olympics Sports Complex

The island where we visited after Athens was Santorini, an island where “the most beautiful sun sets”. We departed from the Pireaus, the port of Athens, and take a few hours to arrive Santorini. Santorini is an island where you can find the famous white houses full of the island. You don’t need to do much on the island. Just to enjoy the scenery, the atmosphere and the sunset will do. For me, before or after Summer is a better time period for visiting Santorini, since I cannot stand the extreme heat during the Summer there. The temperature in April is already 17 degree Celsius and it is so much warmer in daytime.

Sunset from Oia, Santorini

Another island I visited is Mykonos, which is also a beautiful island, but it is very different from Santorini. Personally, I like Mykonos a bit more. It may not be as famous as Santorini, but the sunset there is also amazing. I watched the sunset near the windmills and it was so nice and breath-taking that I couldn’t really find words to describe it. What I loved the most is to just wandering in the streets on the island, enjoying the sun on the beaches, or just simply having a great meal beside the sea.

Sunset in Mykonos

The food in Greece was delicious, nice and not expensive comparing to the Western Europe. Being a student here in the UK allows us to travel to different places in Europe more easily. Therefore, I would really recommend Italy and Greece to anyone who are interested in the ancient culture and would like to explore these amazing cities. It really feels so different to be at the places and see the architectures with our own eyes when they are used to be only on our history text-books.

Hope you all enjoyed this week’s blog and I will see you next week!:)

(All photos credit to Ms. A. Chan)