One of the most amazing aspects of traveling to Europe is how different everything looks. Cobblestone streets, narrow roads, and tiny apartment buildings are all so different from what we have here in the U.S. Especially in New York City where the roads are long and wide, it was amazing to see streets where barely one car can pass through. The cars themselves were so much smaller. In the U.S., it’s quite common to see big SUV’s or minivans…not in Europe. Even the cities themselves were so much different. In the U.S. when we think of a city we think of something like New York City, huge skyscrapers, and buildings made out of glass.
This is what I expected to see when I traveled to Europe for the first time. Rome and Athens were nothing like that. There wasn’t a skyscraper in sight, and most of the buildings were extremely old. Here in the United States, everything seems so new compared to Europe. There was a piazza in Rome literally sitting on top of an ancient stadium. Our tour guide took us into one home in Athens where a man redid his basement to find a huge pot which was over 2,000 years old. The mountain ranges were also beautiful. Coming from Long Island, I have only seen a few mountains in my lifetime. Being in Delphi, a city in the mountains of Greece, was breathtaking. The mountains and valleys looked like they went on forever. They made the 4-hour bus journeys more enjoyable.