Exploring the Athenian Acropolis

It’s really quite bizarre reading about things in books for years and seeing so many countless pictures of them as well and then seeing them actually in person. I was really quite thunderstruck when I first set foot inside the Athenian Acropolis as a high school student.

 

A teacher at my school chaperoned students annually, with the help of parents, to different international destinations for a few weeks in the summer months. This was something she did on the side and not really affiliated with the school in any way, but that’s where everyone was from. And each year she traveled, it was to a different spot.

 

When the opportunity came up to go to Athens in my junior year I knew I had to go. I begged and pleaded with my parents to send me and all they really did was laugh. I thought this was quite cruel, but it turns out they thought it was a great idea for me to go and learn about the international world as well.

 

And as I walked through the gate leading to the Parthenon, I held my breath. Excitement rose in me like never before as I knew I was arriving at a place where it’s something people only ever read about in books. This was something different, something special, and I was there seeing it.

 

The Acropolis, which is really just a general term for any ancient Greek citadel, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Long before I was a twinkle in anyone’s eye, the temples for Zeus and Athena were there and the ground was walked by noble leaders such as Pericles; it will all be there for just as long after my light has been snuffed out.

 

But I, just a stupid high school kid, was at a place that’s only read about it books and never actually visited. Being at any such place is an experience of a lifetime, but it’s magnified so much further as the first such stop and at such a young age.

 

I give great credit to the Athenian Acropolis, as well as the old family roadtrips, as the place that lit my fire for travel. The thought of it has kept the fire raging through the years. It was something different, something special and something that will not be forgotten as the time and place where I was fortunate enough to be somewhere not everyone gets to go.

 

If I haven’t said it before, I’m saying it now, thank you to my parents for the gift of travel.