top of page

The Geese take Greece


After A long week following my design studio mid review, I had the pleasure of taking some time off and seeing lots of family and doing lots of travel. Before I jetted off to Greece and right after my mid review, I met up with Auntie Carroll Truty, who was visiting Barcelona on a business trip for a conference. I got to meet up with her and two of her co workers to get dinner and drinks at Ultramarinos, one of the restaurants gracing La Rambla. Not only did I get to show her some of my favorite places around La Ramble, like Placa Reial, I was also lucky enough to get a real american care package from not only my mom, but also Auntie Carroll and Uncle Stan. I got my jeans, makeup, a giant jar of peanut butter, and giant bag of M&Ms, among other things. I love having visitors, so if you're in the neighborhood, or looking for an excuse to come to Spain, here I am!

I've seriously enjoyed my time in Greece! Greece is such a beautiful country. Even though I would have loved to go to the Greek Islands, there wasn't enough time. But there was so much to do in Greece that it didn't even matter. To start the trip, which I took with the fabulous Maddy Speicher and Elise Skulte, we headed to the National Archaeological Museum. We went to so many places, but I really think that behind the Acropolis, this was my favorite place to explore! Not only were the artifacts beautiful and interesting, but the museum security was hilarious. The funny thing about it was the amount of tines we got yelled at for posing for pictures with the artifacts was great. I swear I'm surprised we didn't get kicked out. I even got a picture of Elise getting yelled at for touching the artifacts.

But don't worry! We still got some pictures of us being the art (there was a security guard that just laughed at us for becoming a Koros). Thanks to Maddy , who's minor is in Classical studies, we were able to learn so much about the Classical Greek art and architecture. Even though I took a Greek and Egyptian architectural history course, I did not know half of what Maddy was telling me! She knew so much about everything we saw ans loved explaining it to us. I'm so glad she didn't get annoyed by me asking her about what we were looking at.

We ate some AMAZING real Greek gyros and did some shopping (none of us bought anything, but we looked). Even though it was Halloween, we couldn't celebrate because the Greeks don't celebrate Halloween. They are seriously missing out if you ask me.

The next day we went to the Acropolis! As an architecture student, this was a completely surreal experience. Seeing such famous structures in real life has been a once in a life time experience.I don't think I ever really expected to see the Parthenon in real life. I definitely didn't expect the shear size of it! It was so much bigger than I expected! I think the concept of a monument can't really be realized until you're standing in front of the monument. Obviously we had to get artsy and sketch, but we also totally represented UIUC with our ILL picture (see above). The funniest part of the trip to the Acropolis was the WIND! It was sooo windy! As three girls, there was hair flying everywhere in all of our photos!

Believe it or not, these are the least windy! We headed to a bunch more ruins after the Acropolis including...

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus (technically on the way to the Acropolis, not after)!

The Temple of Hephaestus!

The Roman Agora (AKA the place Hercules destroyed with the Frisbee- at least that's what I like to think)!

The incomplete temple of Olympian Zeus!

The next day we started out early and visited the Acropolis Museum, the first modern Olympic Stadium, the Museum of Cycladic Art, and last but not least, after some tasty ice cream at a really weird little dessert place, we headed to the theater! When I say theater, I mean we went to one of the most famous modern buildings in Athens and saw Sweeney Todd the Musical. That was a very interesting experience because it was entirely in Greek! I wasn't really surprised by this, but it was a bit hard to follow.

The next morning, I headed to the cafe we were going to every day and got the biggest cinnamon roll in the world! It was both breakfast and lunch, so it wasn't a crazy breakfast. I met my Aunt and Uncle at the air port and headed into Barcelona to see the Font Magica

The next morning, we headed to Figueres and saw the Dali Museum. The museum itself was a a work of experiential art. The museum had a specific route you had to follow to view the exhibits and had so many point of view exhibits!

I wouldn't say I was jet lagged after returning from Greece, but after the whole day of travel and then the fountain and immediately the trip to Figueres, I was definitely exhausted. Even so, I continued my whirlwind weekend with a trip to the Barcelona zoo! The zoo had a lot of animals, but unfortunately (however fortunately for the animals) a lot of the exhibits we closed for renovations and improvements.

After the zoo, we wandered around the Park de la Cuitadella, which contains one of Gaudi's earliest works, a beautiful fountain and structure that is the crowning jewel of the park.

While killing time before our lunch reservation at Restaurante 7 Portes, we walked around the park to the site for my fall semester studio project. It was great explaining to Uncle Ed and Aunt Denise how studio design projects work and how they incorporate real locations and buildings in the creation of entirely theoretical designs. Check the eat tab for a taste of the delicious Greek and Spanish food I got to eat!

You Might Also Like:
bottom of page