My 21st Birthday!

The night before my birthday we went and saw traditional Greek dances. The costumes were really cool. The dancing was interesting. The girls seemed to just do little steps and the guys did some cool kick flips. It was a really neat experience I only wish we had been able to join in.

Then at midnight we went out for my birthday. We started at this Greek karaoke bar. When we first went in everyone was singing slow Greek songs. I flipped through the book of songs and knew immediately what song I wanted to sing. Don't Stop Believin by Journey! Courtney said she wanted to sing it with me. So she and I stood up when it was our turn and when we started to sing our whole group (like 19 of us total) stood up and joined in. It was the most EPIC karaoke ever! All the Greeks were looking at us probably thinking crazy Americans. :) The song became like our theme song for the rest of the trip. And after our song we went like three doors down the street to another club that was more fun. We danced all night and had an amazing time together!

The next day, the best day ever, May 31st, my 21st birthday :), we went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. This temple is surrounded by a beautiful park in the middle of modern Athens. It took 700 years to complete, and was finally completed and dedicated by Hadrian in 130 AD. Of the 104 original columns only 16 are still standing today. But none the less the temple is still massive and very impressive.

Jumping for joy because I'm in Greece on my Bday!

After seeing the temple we went to the National Archaeological Museum. I saw so many famous art pieces that I was almost speechless.

The Museum had pieces from prehistoric times through to high classical sculpture. And instead of talking too much about these amazing pieces I'll just show you some pictures that hopefully do them justice.

Mask of Agememnon- Mycenaean Period

Harp Player- Early Cycladic Period

Kouros (male)

Kore (female)

Bronze Poseidon- 460 BC

Artemision Jockey- 140 BC

Black Figure Pottery

Pan accosting Aphrodite-100 BC

When we finished at the museum we got on our bus and headed to Glyfada, a seaside suburb of Athens. Glyfada was a kind of upscale area with lots of clothing stores. Our hotel was right next to the beach. I was rooming with Tracie and our room number was 3 and everybody else's were like 302 or 410. We were basically in the basement. It was quite the experience. After dinner on the town we came back to the hotel and everyone surprised me downstairs with a fancy cupcake and sang happy birthday to me. It was one of the best birthdays ever!