It's All Greek to Me! 2015: Day 10 - SMUS Greek Adventure ends where Democracy began!

SMUS said goodbye to Kyparissia as we embarked on our final leg of our Greek adventure. After a 3 and a half hour bus ride we arrived in the country's capital, Athens. We dropped our luggage at the hotel and went straight to the Acropolis where we met our amazing guide, Aristotle, (can't get more greek than that!). After admiring Zeus's temple and the gates of Hadrian we marched up to the Acropolis entrance and explored the Theatre of Dyonisus, Askeplion, Roman Theatre, Parthenon, Erecthion and Temple of Nike.

Fun Fact:

The Erecthion sits on the most sacred site of the Acropolis where Poseidon and Athena had their contest over who would be the Patron of the city. Poseidon thrust his trident into the rock and a spring burst forth, while Athena touched the ground with a spear and an olive tree grew.

The Acropolis was originally seen as a fortress to protect the city, but as the years went on it became a symbol to recognize the greatness of the godess Athena.

The Acropolis museum was a neat place to visit as it is designed as a replica of the parthanon. ..It even parallels the actually building itself. We ventured through each exhibit as if we were in the parthanon itself. We learned all about the restoration process and how they are trying to bring back ancient Greek techniques when restoring these famous monuments. There is also a really neat lego creation of the Acropolis. See below.

Fun Fact: the design of the parthanon is an illusion. The most perfect building built by the world's most advanced civilization and even though we have been studying it for centuries we are still not sure how they did it.

We shopped the Plaka before taking the subway 2 stops back to our hotel. We enjoyed a lovely dinner with a view of the Acropolis.

The referendum occupied the conversation of the evening and as the ballots were tallied we waited anxiously to hear the results. Our hotel was 5 blocks north of Syntagma square and it was a surreal experience to think what we were watching on TV could be seen in the distance from our hotel. The question still remains as to what the future of his country looks like and we got to hear many different local perspectives. It was interesting to note that aside from the lineups at the ATMs, (where locals were taking out their 60 euro a day limit), there was very little evidence of referendum tension.

Student Opinions below:

Matthew

I learned that the referendum doesn't really confirm anything. They can still make a new deal.

Franklin

I learned that whichever way the vote went there were changes. No = possible collapse in economy. Yes= change in leadership- the PM threatened he would resign of the majority vote was yes.

Thomas

I learned that most of the locals we met wanted to switch back to the drachma to help stabilize their economy.

Alex

61% voted no, 39% said yes. This will impact Greece a lot, they have to switch from the euro.

Wilson

They chose not to sign the bailout offer, I think this will allow them to keep the Greek culture but will have an impact on the stability of their economy.