Acropolis Research Paper

The summer going into my eighth-grade year my family and I took a 2-week vacation to explore my stepmoms motherland of Greece. This expedition included a 5-day stay in the county's capital, Athens, a week stay in my stepgrandfather's home island of Chios and lastly another week on the island of Ikaria, this is where my stepgrandmother's family comes from. During my stay in Athens, I spent my days exploring the city, getting lost in plazas with my father and was fortunate enough to dine is some exquisite restaurants. One location that my family and I made a specific point of going to was the crown jewel of ancient Greek architecture. The Acropolis, we explored the Parthenon and were all amazed at how such a detailed building could have been

It was dark when we got on the boat and remained as such for the remainder of the voyage. Our seats were located on the outside of the upper deck. The cruise was cold, salty and unbearably windy. The Aegean Sea was churning and crashing into the sides of the boat. My sister and I, huddled underneath copious amounts of blankets, would feel sporadic splashings of seawater on the tops of our heads or the blanket covering us. When we were about ten nautical miles offshore of the island, I emerged from my makeshift shelter on the boat and started to look for any sign of land. I was being pelted but endless wind, the air was dense with mist and sea salt. I began to see what looked to be a large city on the shore of what I couldn't make out at the time but what ended up being the island of Chios, our

Once off the boat, we arrived in the island's main port city then bussed to our hotel a village over. My stepmom's family, being a bunch of greeks that travel to Greece regularly became friends with many locals. We had some close ties lots of people on this island in particular, for example, Thea, the owner of the hotel we were staying at. The village we where our hotel was located was more or less only some structures, smaller and less developed than the village we stayed in in Chios. Just a few buildings, our hotel and another, a small bakery, and a convenience market where the only buildings that were not residences. Within the first days of our week stay, I had become friends with Thea’s youngest son, Yanni, who was about my age as well. He was good to have with me because like mentioned, I didn’t know anything about the greek language. One day he and I wanted to go to a beach that was a city over. Us both being about thirteen couldn't drive or even rent a Vespa scooter began to walk this 5 mile stretch of mountain road toward the beach. About a half mile in Yanni expressed to me how he was sick of walking and didn’t want to anymore. He then began to hitchhike, trying to get anyone to stop and give us a ride. Cars flew by us honking and some people even yelling out their windows. Eventually, Yanni got someone to stop. During this whole turn of events, I did my best to remain calm and try to