Quest for Culture: Scavenger Hunt!

CYA's Creative way to get us walking around the City!

Our first Sunday in Athens, We had the option of signing up for a scavenger hunt! We were given team assignments, a map, a list of places/item's to see, as well as a point system.

There were required item's we had to photograph as well as bonus photo's we could take.

Our apartments are located around Pangrati, so we began there.

Pretending to throw a discus!

I am a Monkey

Our first photograph had to get was of the Zabion Exhibition and Congress hall. It's located right next to the National Gardens, which is about 15 minute walk from our apartment. We chose to reenact Greek Games This was easy enough to accomplish. The next photo was in the National Gardens, reenacting when King Alexander was bitten by a monkey there, and died three days later. I, of course, was the monkey.

There is an ACTUAL Skeleton in there!

Right behind the National Gardens is an entrance to the Metro Station. There are lots of random places where Archaeologists have preserved parts of Ancient Athens. The subway is no exception. There is an entire wall excavated that holds the tomb of an unknown skeleton. This was on our list of things to photograph.

He wasn't smiling for me.

Back on the surface, we had to photograph the tomb of the fallen solder, which is in the front of the Parliament building. We tried to kill two birds with one stone and get a picture of a smiling guardsmen, but that wasn't happening. ALTHOUGH, later in the day, we did see one! Unfortunately, no one had their camera out.

Street Performers!

Walking towards Monastiraki, we had to get a picture of a street performer. There is always plenty of people performing on the street, so we had plenty of options. We found an adorable little boy playing the organ. We decided to use him for our scavenger hunt, and of course, we threw him a few Euro too!

Actual Face-Sized Fruit

James Joyce Pub!

Trollin'

In Monastiraki, we had to photograph a few things. For one, Monastiraki has a giant flea market. Even bigger than the fruit market, and you can find everything there. There were stores littered all around the Square. We had to photograph the oddest thing we found at the flea market. As well as the James Joyce Pub, hidden in the back part of the square. We definitely found a lot of interesting things. Such as faced sized fruit. The fruit here, as I've mentioned before, is big and fresh. It's incredible. We took a nice long break in James Joyce Pub, but not before we spend an hour and a half exploring the Greek Agora that's located right next to it. There were lots of ruins to explore as well as sculptures and other things to look at. One bonus picture we got here was me mimicking a statue. As you can imagine, there are plenty of statues around Athens to mimic, however, my favorite is definately channeling a headless, limbless statue we found in the Greek Agora.

"Oh maid of Athens, ere I part/Give oh give me back my heart" - Byron

Next, we headed to Psiri, for the next part of our scavenger hunt. The poet, Byron, stayed in a house in Psiri, and we had to photograph this house. However, there was bonus points for reenacting Byron reciting poetry to one of his maids. Naturally, we accepted the challenge. Right around the corner, we discovered the Poet Sandal Maker, which I have already posted about. We spent about an hour and a half there, trying on shoes and relaxing while Christina decided which pair of sandals to buy. Many CYA students have purchased sandals here, now.

Chillin like Athenian Students.

Our next mission was to photograph something in Gazi. I'm not entirely sure what we were supposed to photograph here, as we were not able to locate it. However, we did take the liberty of mimicking more statues. And I got Gelato. But I always get gelato.Gazi is supposed to have a really interesting night life. Just by walking around it during the day, you can certainly tell that it's a funky part of the city. Although I have not visited there at night, many CYA students have ventured there and enjoyed the nightlife.

Next, we made our way ALL the way to Exarhia. The attraction here is that this is where students from Athenian schools usually hang out. Its an interesting part of town, much more laid back and open than what you typically see. We had to photograph ourselves at the Floral Cafe here.

Town of the Winds

Lastly, we made our way back to Plaka, which is not far from where we live. Here we found a restaurant that sits right on the corner in the middle of Plaka. It sells excellent souvlaki and we had to get a picture of us eating there.

We had one more picture to take-The Tower of the Winds. Unfortunately, we had spent all the reasonable hours of the day exploring Athens pretty thoroughly. By the time we got to the location of the tower of the winds, the exhibit was closed, so we couldn't get a close look.

Coconut-not as good as I thought.

Other bonus photo's we could take include a picture with a random street vendor. A picture with willing, smiling Greeks, and a picture with the Greek Flag. We got a picture with a coconut vender while walking around Syntagma. While trying to find the souvlaki restaurant, a random Greek man helped give us directions, and agreed to take a photo with us. Lastly, as we're walking home, we catch a picture of us with the Greek Flag at the top of the Parliament Building.

The scavenger hunt took all day, which we did not expect. But it was really a lot of fun. We didn't really get ourselves too lost, and we definitely know the area a little better. If nothing else, things at least look familiar to us when we're exploring. We also got a chance to bond with one another, as we are all still in the process of getting to know each other. My team was made up of Nat, the one in blue, Christine, the girl in black, Myself, as well as Megan, who is not pictured because she's the one taking all the pictures.