Lab #3: My Google Map "Tour of Athens, Greece"

View Tour of Athens, Greece in a larger map





This summer, I traveled to Greece. Our first stop was Athens. I was initially very excited about going to Athens, because I knew a little about the history so it seemed as though it would be quite a site. However, when I arrived at the hotel, I was a little disappointed; it wasn't as fascinating as I had thought. But once I began to explore the area and after making my way to the more touristy parts of the city, I realized that it really was an amazing city. There is a lot of walking in Greece, so using Google Maps I created a map that includes several "hot spots" in Athens.

Initially, it was difficult to map my route. I wanted to share the nice shops and amazing restaurants in Athens. The main issue I had while creating the map was that it was all in Greek! Of course, I remember the names of a lot of the places where I went, but it was hard to locate them amidst the many other locations that the map shows, so this was definitely one of the pitfalls. What was even more difficult was trying to pinpoint the location of places in areas where they didn't necessarily have a building. For example, on my map I marked a gyro shop. This was difficult to pinpoint because it is located in a shopping district. So it helped to know the overall location of the shopping district, but it was difficult to mark the exact location of the gyro shop. However, there was a plus side to using neogeography and that was that I was able to include a picture along with my marker. I'm sure not everyone knows what a gyro is (Greek "taco"), so it was helpful to be able to include a picture. Therefore, neogeography has much potential, because through the media attachments it helps to make sense of these places and the things you can find within them.

Lastly, I realized that one of the major consequences of neogeography is its power to not only locate places but the power of making sense of these places for others as well. I don't think I could have better explained to someone how to get from their hotel to the Parthenon. More importantly, I wouldn't have been able to direct them in a way so that they, too, could have the same walking tour experience that I had.