From the 5th to the 9th of December, I spent a small holiday in Athens. With a bunch of friends I left around noon from Brussels. When we arrived in Greece we first checked out our accommodation.

After a terrific meal at the ‘Cellar of the Gods’, which had the best moussaka ever, we headed back to backpackers for our Sinterklaas celebration. We played game of dice to decide who got which present. Jeroen definitely was the winner with his board game, my little pony dvd and skippy dvd.

Later that evening we took the red metro to Syntagma and then switched to the blue and headed for Monastiriaki. When we got there we headed for the first available chairs and ordered pente Mythos. I just love the standard 0.5 l bottles they use in Greece. When we all thought we had enough we started to walk back to backpackers. After about 100 meters and a dead end we decided to get a taxi.

The next morning after we awoke to our first greek-beer-headache, we decided to do something cultural and headed of for the Acropolis, which was only about 200 meters from our room. Students could walk up for free, but Adri and Pappa Dopoulos had to pay 12 euro’s each. The walk up was a lot less tyring than it seemed when we were still down below, and there were ancient remnants everywhere to gaze at. At the top you had a great view of Athens.

After exploring the grounds around the Acropolis we headed of for the city. We just started walking and we didn’t stop until we were kind of lost. Even the acropolis, usually towering out above the buildings couldn’t be seen anymore. We decided to go back to the last metro station we past and head of to Monastiriaki again. And who should we meet there but some more PSV’ers already sitting at the place we wanted to go to. We remained there into the evening and spent our time singing to some specific locals.

Later we all returned to the same restaurant as the previous night. And once again we all got served so much of the nicest food in the world. After the meal we went in search of a taxi that could bring us to a good bar. On the way over there in the taxi’s we nearly bumped into Pieter vd Hoogenband, Jacco Verhagen and Dennis vd Geest. The taxi’s drove us to typically Greek bar. It was quite strange to be there and do Greek dances and stuff but it was definitely a great experience. When we had had enough of Greek dancing we left again and took the same taxi’s to another place. Unfortunately the taxi’s kind of ripped us of, and there was a small argument about it, but luckily we ended up in a small stuffy bar which was quite alright.

The next day we once again awoke at the crack of dawn, hahaha. We wanted to visit the Olympic stadium so we left for the metro station. On our way to the metro station we passed a sandwich kiosk. Bakker Bart eat your heart out, the Greek really know how to make a sandwich. When we arrived at the Olympic complex it was kind of a disappointment. Everything was completely sealed off with fences. And the only guard available or questions was to busy reading his newspaper, so of course he couldn’t find the time to talk to us.

To become of our disappointment we headed all the way back to Monastiriaki for a drink. For the first time since we were in Athens it was getting a little cooler, and we then decided to return to backpackers for some jumpers. Since the game time was approaching we stayed some time on the balcony, before leaving to the match. We stopped for dinner at a tiny little restaurant, completely separated from the busy parts Athens. The food was good, and the waitress completely mad.

Next up on the list, the main reason we’re in Athens, of course… The Match. Somehow we all sort of forgot about it during the trip, since the result didn’t matter because they already qualified. We met up with the other half of the group and headed of to the stadium. At the stadium we nearly all bought a souvenir scarf with both panathinaikos and psv on it. Best I don’t spend to many words on the actual match. PSV played terribly and they lost 4-1. Luckily every time Panathinaikos scored they played a tune so funny we all just started cheering to the song.

After the match we went to backpackers again. We had to get up at 5 AM so we decided to stay in our room and play a card game. Around 3 o’clock in the morning everybody decided to lie down for the last two hours. I couldn’t realy sleep so I headed of to the roof with Aleksandra to have a last look at the Acropolis . At 5 o’clock we all got ourselves ready and left for the metro. The return to Eindhoven was an extremely tiring one, with everybody nearly falling asleep. Back in Eindhoven we recovered with a delicious bowl of home made tomato-soup prepared by Mamma Dopoulos.

Looking back, I have to say that this trip is one of the best ones I’ve been on. Everything was just perfect.