From Athina to Roma

The last two days have been exhausting. I have had a hard time fighting jet lag and loss of appetite. Last summer, I lived in Colorado for eleven weeks and I remember not having an appetite for the first week or two as I adjusted to the new living situations and diet. I guess this is more of the same kind of adjustment, so it has been really hard for me to eat anything without feeling sick. Also, I feel really tired around mid-morning and early afternoon, and then once night time hits I feel much more energized so I have only been sleeping a few hours per night. I guess this is all part of the adjustment.

Yesterday was our last day in Athens. We climbed (or rode, rather) to the highest point in the city (Mt. Lycabettus), where there was a small church and a look-out area at which you could see all of Athens.

The ride up the mountain was terrifying. We sat in this little tram which proceeded to take us up the mountain at around 2 mph at a very steep angle. I hated it, so we decided to walk down instead of taking the tram again.

We went to lunch and decided to split the most stereotypical Greek menu item we could find…how did we do?

Dad has an old childhood friend who now lives in Athens. Dad has not seen him for thirty or so years, so his friend (Craig) wanted to take us out of that NesFrappe I had been so badly wanting to try, and to dinner. Craig picked us up in the city center, and drove us to the suburbs of Athens where he lives. We sat at a café overlooking the Aegean Sea and drank our coffees while Craig and Dad chatted about the aerospace industry (I had a lot to add to that conversation).

I need to make the rest of this post short because we are about to head out again. We flew to Rome the next morning and let me tell you, it is both stunning and impressive. Every other corner we turn has a several hundred or thousand year-old church at its corner. We are staying directly down the street from the Pantheon, and we are going to church this morning at a church which is known to have the head of John the Baptist as a relic. The area in which we are staying was built before the coliseum was even made. There is so much history here, and so many of these buildings are so well preserved.

             

Spanish Steps, it was so crowded. 

Trevi Fountain

View from our room window

Trevi at night

Prayer requests: That I continue to re-gain my appetite (I think being in Italy has been helping!) and to sleep more than I have been sleeping. Also, for safe flights and travels for the rest of our trip.