Athens, Greece. By Ruby

Our first stop on our Europe leg of our journey was Athens. We flew from Istanbul to Athens and got a taxi to our apartment which was a 20 minute walk to the tourist area and acropolis.

The best thing about being outside of the tourist area is that you get to meet with the locas and eat at more local cafes and restaurants. We had a balcony in our aparment and the weather was great. The tram went right past our apartment block.

One of the main atractions in Athens is the Acropolis, this is a collection of many ancient greek buildings, ampitheatres and also includes the parthenon - the temple of Athena! Me, Mila and mum visited the acropolis alone because dad had already been and hazel was too young to understand lots of the history. We left early in the morning so that there wouldn't be a long line when we got there, our early tram ride paid off because there was no line at all!

We were able to explore the acropolis without the crowds for about the first 15 minutes and then it got insanely crowded and we could barely move.

After this we went to the museum which focuses on the artefacts found during the excavation of the acropilies. It also gave us lots of information about how and when it was built, it was also distroyed and rebuilt many times by the acient greeks. By the time the romans had conquered Greece they showed their admiration to the Greeks and their architectue by helping to rebuild it a final time.

We also spent a day exploring Athens with the whole family. We watched the changing of the guard in front of the parliament building where members of the military perform a ritual of strange movements and actions before they swap places.

Of course there was plenty of new food to try in Greece. Some of these foods included a greek salad, gyros and lots of greek yogurt!

It was easter when we went to Athens so the churches were constansly doing serverces and they were very crowded. On the night before Easter, at midnight, we saw people walking down the street with candles that they had lit at the church. There were bringing it back to their houses for good luck! Then there was a massive display of fireworks. The Easter bunny even found us so we had delicious choclate eggs for Easter Sunday.

We also spent a lot of time exploring the streets of Athens, there were buskers, food stalls and lots of cute squares with f, cobblestone and plants. We also saw many beautiful chruches on the streets, the roof and walls of these chruches were covered in paintings!

We all had such an amazing time in Athens, exploring the ancient cultures and the culutres that they have today. It was a great easter and a wonderful experince.