City Six: Athens, Greece Bright Blues & Crisp Whites The Final Installment of Six Cities When I think back on Athens, one memory prevails: standing on top of the Acropolis and feeling as if I were Zeus staring down at a city so vast it seemed endless. This was remarkable, given the great elevation at which I stood. The Acropolis, one of the eight hills of Athens, is the main attraction in the city, and home to priceless ancient ruins, the most famous of which is the Parthenon.

"On March 17th, two brave, attractive, and daring students, Shawna and Amy, embarked on 18 days of nonstop backpacking across Europe. Both players were involved in the New York University study abroad program in London, England, and decided to spend spring break taking advantage of how ridiculously cheap it is to travel in Europe. They set out on an amazing quest to find one thing: Men in Kilts (not to be confused with Men in Tights, as in "Robin Hood Men in Tights," a comedy favorite of both travelers). Shawna writes about the history, the food, the catcalls, and the revelries the two ladies found on their journey through six cities: Dublin, Paris, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Athens. Read on to find out if they were successful in their quest to find kilted men…

We also spent a day cruising around three Saronic islands off the coast of Greece: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. It was at these islands that I experienced Greece as I had always pictured it: bright blue shutters and terracotta roofs accenting the crisp white houses nestled in the mountains. On Hydra, all motor vehicles are banned. The only form of transportation is by donkey. On Poros, I fell in love with Greek jewelry (but not with the price tags).

Aegina was the largest of the three islands and the closest to Athens. We took a cab to the beach, which hadn’t yet opened for the day. We were content to bask in the chilly breeze and bright sun of the ancient city.

		Athens was the last stop on our amazing ultra-cool spring break travel itinerary, and it was the most foreign to us due to the language barrier. In Paris, we had had the help of my friends there to get us around town, and we all knew the ubiquitous translations for “hello,” “goodbye,” and “thank you,” in French.

In Florence and Rome I discovered that putting an Italian twist to most Spanish words gets the point across. However, in Greece, few people spoke English and the Greek language was the first we had encountered on this trip that didn’t use the Latin alphabet. We didn’t even pick up “hello” or “goodbye” in the three days we spent there.

Athens was the cheapest city we visited. On the day we went to the Acropolis, we ended up visiting four different Zaras on the way back to our hotel and basically purchasing our entire spring wardrobe in one city, in one day, in one store. Amazing! The food was cheap, and consequently we had all the gyros and shish kebab our hearts desired. Even more fortuitously, our flight from Athens to London Heathrow on Hellas Jet Airlines was one of the most accommodating flights we’d taken during two weeks of whizzing around the air above Europe. Not only did we have a full hot meal, but they even served us an aperitif of Bailey’s. I’ve never had that experience on an economy, not to mention budget, flight before. So here’s a toast to Hellas Jet for bringing us home with a huge bang.