Athens, Greece - Day 3

Today, our third and final day in Greece, was planned to start as yesterday did, bright and early.  However, Dan decided to get up 30 minutes before us, coughed up a lung in the shower and fooled around in the bathroom like a bull in a china shop.  Lauren and I decided we wanted some extra sleep and were willing to risk missing the free hotel breakfast for some rest after the ruckus.  We reset our alarm and woke around 9.  By the time we were ready, we had, in fact, missed the breakfast, but they offered to reopen for us to get some food to go.  Instead, we found a small café near the tourist district, although the restaurant seemed to be occupied by all Greeks, which I guess is a good sign.  We ordered omelets (the only option for breakfast, besides coffee and orange juice).  Dan got brave and ordered Greek coffee, which was another mistake.  It was a short espresso coffee and terribly bitter.   The ham and cheese omelets were very good and filled me up well.  We wanted to spend our day hitting all the attractions that we had missed the day before, beginning with the National Archeological Museum, which is located in the center of the city, quite a ways from our hotel.  We were so exhausted from walking miles around Athens we decided that the metro was a better way to get around.  Dan and Lauren had a little spat over which metro stop to take, mostly because none of us really knew where we were, so once that was resolved, we paid the metro and navigated the system just like we were back in St. Louis, hopping off at Victoria Station and walking a few blocks to the museum.  The place was enormous and filled with the most important and famous artifacts from archeology around the world, specifically Greece and Egypt.  We couldn’t help but laugh at all the nude statues and in particular, a display of Greek body part sculptures, which were created and offered to the Gods for healing of a specific ailment – little boobs, butts, penises and ears made of stone.  Hilarious!! There was another display of items recovered from a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea.  The ship was destined for Italy and was loaded with statues, sculptures and riches.  It was incredible how some of the items were partially submerged in the sediment and those portions were perfectly preserved, while the exposed areas were horribly eroded by sea organisms.  This made for really unique artifacts.  We left after taking photos of a huge statue, which is debatably Zeus or Poseidon, no one really knows.  We took a rest on the stone steps of the Museum and reached a consensus on the next leg of our journey.  Just adjacent to the museum was the old Polytechnic, a famous university in Athens.  It was the sight of a deadly demonstration on my birthday, November 17, in 1976.  Some college students organized a riot and were killed in the process, but their rebellion changed the face of Greek government forever.  November 17 is held as a national holiday in Greece – I knew that was a special day!!  The Polytechnic was oddly rundown and neglected, but an incredibly beautiful building.  There is graffiti all around Athens, but this was a different tone, more depressing and dark.  We were sort of creeped out, so took some photos, climbed the marble steps and hit the road.  I had been begging to make our way to Omonia Square and visit the famous Central Market there.  This was a site highlighted in my travel book.  It is a large, semi-outdoor market brimming with meat, fish, spices and countless other types of food, as well as a pungent stench.  The market was super interesting to see, but horrible to smell.  The meat area stunk so badly Lauren was gagging and had to run out the door.  Not to mention, the perverted butchers who were whistling at her and not too friendly to us.  There were mounds of fresh meat, out in the open, bloody and warm with old Greek women fingering every piece as flies swarmed.  Crazy!  We left the market and headed back towards the metro stop, admiring the Athens town hall and huge, pigeon-filled square. 

Now, we planned to head back to the Acropolis for lunch and a tour of Filopoppus Hill.  According to my book, there was a nice bistro on the hill, which was great for lunch.  After exiting the metro, we walked along the backside of the Acropolis, which offered incredible views of the Parthenon, to Filopoppus hill.  He chose a path at random and made our way up, keeping an eye out for the café at all times.  First, we stumbled upon Socrates’ Prison, a cave, where Socrates was held and died of hemlock poisoning.  At this time, Lauren had to pee terribly and we were dying for a bottle of water and a meal, as we continued up the forested hill.  Eventually we made it to the restaurant, which was obviously no longer in service.  There was a homeless man asleep on the bench and an eerie feeling about the whole area.  The trip took a nosedive from here!  With Lauren still having to pee and us even more famished, we continued walking and found the Psynx.  This giant stone cliff sits on Filopappus Hill and offers extraordinary views of the city.  My book called it the birthplace of democracy in Greece, but we think our fun died here.  We took some great photos from there and even employed some friendly Asians to take a couple good group shots.  Haha!  We headed down looking for a toilet, as Lauren encountered a patch of the ice-marble and fell straight to the ground.  It is a wonder she didn’t pee her pants!  We laughed it off and kept moving to a disgusting public toilet with Greek labeling, so we had no clue which was the men’s and women’s.  Either way, it got the job done.  We decided since we were already on the hill, no matter how hungry, tired or disgruntled, we would make it to the top for the famed views.  We climbed up trails, steps and rickety bridges, with everyone griping the whole way, but we eventually made it to the peak and to the Filopappus Monument.  At the top, we took our usual photos and encountered the strangest man of the trip, sitting on the edge of the giant cliff, reading a book.  He was asking Lauren and I to come out there for a picture.  We had learned our lesson about the dangers of the slippery marble and quite honestly thought this creepy man would throw us off the ledge anyway. He proceeded to tell us that he was the next prophet and pretended to jump off, saying Jesus would save him.  When we were no longer paying attention to him, he got our attention again by doing one-handed pushups on the very edge of the stone cliff, while reading (see Dan’s facebook wall for video!).  What a nut!  Thanks to him and the debilitating hunger, we headed down the hill.   We stopped for a snack at a café near the New Acropolis Museum, which was our next planned stop.  We had some pastry items from the café and I had another Mythos!  The New Acropolis Museum was awesome.  It was constructed on top on an ancient Christian settlement and has a glass floor to look at the ruins below.  It is extremely modern with excellent displays of the statues and sculptures removed from the Acropolis over time.  Once again, we got in for free and right of the bat, Dan (Annie Leibovits) got yelled at for taking pictures with his camera – finally!!  The inside of the museum is built to exactly resemble the size, shape and layout of the Parthenon, so that the excavated pieces are displayed in their correct locations.  We viewed a short film about the history and construction of the Parthenon, and after nearly falling asleep, we decided to leave and head for home.  We made our way to the hotel around the backside of the Acropolis and passed though a very cool area called Thiseio.  We regretted not having found it before, since it looked so nice and fun.  Back at the hotel, we showered and relaxed a bit before eating dinner at the hotel restaurant, where we had spent so much time already.  The food was not great, but it served the purpose.  We went back to the room to pack our things and prepare for our 3AM departure for Santorini, Greece!  

Before we fell asleep, we had a laughter-filled conversation about the day's activities in which we all said our lowest moments of the day.  Lauren said, "falling on my ass!"  Dan said, "probably at the moment when Lauren was going to kill me." (This moment came right after Lauren's fall, when Dan stepped on her toes trying to help her up - that did not help the situation.)  I could really not think of a low moment, which I think bodes well for our final day in Athens!!

Athens, Greece - Day 2

Our first full day in Athens turned out to be an excellent one, not only was it Dan's 21st birthday, but we accomplished everything that we had hoped and more!  I was not too sure what to expect here in Greece and was initially turned off by the drama with the hotels, however things worked out, we got settled and had a blast.  We woke up at 8:30 and were surprisingly not too tired (although, the sleep deprivation hit us hard later!).  We took advantage of our hotel's free breakfast and ate a pretty traditional European meal, complete with Nutella, coffee and hard rolls.  The meal was made all the better by the incredible views from the same rooftop restaurant, which quickly became our favorite spot.  After breakfast, we set out for the major attractions in Athens, the historic Agora and Acropolis.  The Acropolis is the area, which sits way up high on the mountain and can be seen in the previous photos.  The Agora, is the lower "ancient town" which sits below the Acropolis and which you must pass through to get there.  We simply flashed our international student ID card and after a little confusion as to whether we are European students or not, we were granted free access to the sights!!  Couldn't have asked for more.  We walked through the Agora, stopping for photos and to see the huge, reconstructed stoa (very long building of the Agora) and keep moving up the mountain to the Acropolis.  I know I mentioned Dan's camera and photography before, but the situation has worsened by now.  I have quickly found that traveling with him is like toting Annie Leibovitz through Europe... needless to say he took nearly 1000 photos in this one day, which equated to nearly 1000 stops for Lauren and I - I am sure many of you have already been assaulted by them on Facebook, haha!  We eventually just kept going, giving him no option but to keep up.  The going got rough as we neared the top of the Acropolis and encountered the unbelievably slippery marble pavement.  There is no way this would get by in the US and was like walking on ice in many places.  We probably had 30 near misses with the ground by the time we were done (due to our good looking Sperrys), but luckily never fell.  The Acropolis was stunning - absolutely incredible.  The structures were so old and very well maintained.  There is some restoration taking place by the Greek state, so much of the site was covered in scaffolding and construction equipment, but this is par for the course in Europe.  The Parthenon (the large rectangular structure with the columns and statues that you see in every image of Athens), is unbelievable and dominates the tour of the Acropolis, but there are countless smaller structures to see!  Afterwards, we walked down from the Acropolis to Mars Hill (another site that we found extremely dangerous).  This hill is not only made of the same ice-like marble, but is a straight cliff!  We clambered up the stone steps of the hill and skated around on the surface for great views of Athens and the Acropolis above.  Lauren was borderline crying the whole time.  This was so fun!  We thought it would be better named smokey-joe hill for the thousands of cigarette butts, which filled every nook and cranny of the hill.  For the record, we learned that Grecians smoke twice as many cigarettes per capita than the European average - that is obvious!  We also learned, that this point, Mars Hill, is where St. Paul conversed with Greek philosophers back in the day.  Next, we continued back down to the Agora and finished touring its ruins.  Everywhere there are remnants of old structures, which are so wonderfully documented that no piece is left unexplained.  The explanations come in the form of engraved marble plaques, which apparently you cannot try to move, because I got yelled at by a stealthy old lady hiding in the trees behind us.  We visited the Temple of the Greek God of Fire, one of the buildings we can see perfectly from our hotel.  I mentioned the stoa before, but just before leaving the Agora, we stopped back by to check out the Agora museum inside the reconstructed stoa.  This was great to see scale models of the entire area and how it used to look.

Lunch was a welcomed reprieve from the hustle and bustle of the tourist traps of the morning.  We stopped at a café in Plaka called Café Veranda.  Dan and I ate Moussaka, a traditional Greek dish of eggplant, beef, potatoes and cheese (much like a lasagna) and more Mythos beer.  Lauren ordered pasta carbonara and a daiquiri.  Next, we walked through the tourist district of Plaka and saw all of the souvenir shops and attractions.  We made it to our next stop, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, only to find that it, along with several attractions, closed at 3 PM.  We determined this could be why this country is in an economic crisis, people stop working in the middle of the afternoon, just to go sit outside and smoke cigarettes! haha!  Just adjacent to the temple was the Panathenian Stadium, which was the site of the first modern olympic games and home to a museum, which houses several of the Olympic torches!  It was a lot of fun, but sadly the only attraction we have had to pay to enter here in Athens.  We got some great pictures of the place and us pretending to be athletes.  We left the stadium, and walked through the National Gardens, which looked kind of run down and creepy, so we high-tailed it out of there towards a more bustling area - the Greek Parliament.  Parliament was not too exciting, but we got to see the hilarious guards marching out front.  This was nothing like the impressive guards of London or the swiss guards of the Vatican, rather they looked like dorky elves with balls on their toes and didn't march really, but rather walked with their legs high in the air like flamingos.  They touched their shaky and wobbly feet together and dragged them across the marble floor - as serious as ever!  We laughed all the way back the hotel for a much needed nap.


We regrouped for dinner and had selected a place to eat from my TripAdvisor iPhone app.  Once again, our plans were nixed by the locals (thank God!).  We went up to the roof top bar for another Mythos beer and a glass of Greek wine before eating.  By this time, we had made friends with our bartender Saiki or something (I just call him Stevie behind his back) and Stevie said no way should we go to dinner there, but rather pointed us to a local hangout just up the street from our hotel called Gazi (I just keep calling it Gaza, like the Gaza Strip, which scares me..).  It was shady getting there, but was certainly a diamond in the rough.  It was loaded with bars and restaurants, we chose one and had a great dinner with more good beer.  After dinner, as if we hadn't had enough, we stopped at a street vendor in Gazi to get mobile beers, haha, which we could walk around and drink! Very fun!  We headed back to the hotel after dinner on the Gaza Strip to take a five minute rest and use the bathroom, LOL.  We all collapsed on the beds, engrossed in Facebook, until Lauren and I made Dan get up and go back out for his birthday.  He became a jet-lagged European baby really quickly.  We decided to try another place from the TripAdvisor app, called Mini Bar, where everything is served in mini bottles like on an airplane! haha.  Once again, our choice was a failure.  The bar was empty, the bartender was busy smoking with her friends and was annoyed by us and the drinks were terrible and not even served in mini bottles.  Dan's birthday celebration had taken a turn for the worse and we were dead tired, so we left to get Lauren another gyro (yes, even after the Gazi dinner).  Back at the hotel, we had no problem hitting the hay and looking forward to exciting day 3 in Athens!
 

The Parthenon

The Panathenian Stadium

Stoic gaurds

Athens, Greece - Day 1

Well... the traveling was anything but over!  We got extremely lucky in finding an incredible cab driver, which we now claim we owe for our lives.  After casually strapping our bags into the trunk of his mercedes, he took off for town, giving us a small guided tour of the rather slummy surroundings.  He explained that the heart of Athens lies just behind the mountain, which is visible from the airport, and even stopped on the side of the road to give us a look at the 2004 olympic stadium!  He told us of his family, his offer to move to the US to pursue a music career in a Greek restaurant in New York and even showed us book of signatures from his clients, one of which was from Louis Vuitton, who he says is a friend and calls for taxi service any time he is in Athens instead of using limousines.  Anyway, the excitement occurred once we showed him the address of our hotel, Soho.  We chose the hotel from hostelbookers.com a relatively trustworthy site, that offered tons of decent reviews on the hotel, many of which mentioned the sketchy location, but downplayed the flaw.  He gasped when he saw the address and said there is no way we should stay there and asked if we could cancel.  Being unsure of the policy, we asked to go to the hotel and decide for ourselves.  The area, Manandrou, was just as he explained, full of vagrants, immigrants, police, "bastards and black prostitutes".  Lauren and I went into the reception to handle the cancellation while Dan stayed with the driver to protect our exposed luggage from the thieves - some of which they saw openly shooting up drugs!!  We were able to cancel and Demetrius, the driver, took us to another hotel, The Jason Inn Hotel, where he has taken other people in a similar predicament.  This hotel was nearly twice the price, but way better in terms of location, views and amenities.  Plus, they gave us a deal on the rate due to the situation!  Demetrius left us with a business card, an offer to help us with anything else we may need and a wallet full of euros for rescuing our trip to Athens!

Once in the room, we fired up the air conditioning, showered, checked our computers and called back home, then made our way up to the rooftop bar/restaurant for a glimpse of the alleged views... (for the record the shower here was smaller that my dorm closet at SLU, so that made for three hilarious encounters!)  Back to the views - our jaws dropped!  We could literally see straight to the Acropolis, the enormous, mountain which contains the famous parthenon.  We could see the parthenon, bits of the Agora and a beautiful temple of the god of fire.  We took a seat, assisted by our friend from the front desk, ordered some Mythos, the local beer, and enjoyed the sunset and subtle illumination of the famous sights!  We took countless photos of the structures and the sunset, which is nice to have out of the way!  We met an terribly chatty man from Oklahoma who had been to Athens several times to speak at churches or something and he explained the layout of the city and about the historical sights.  We were itching to go out and explore, so after finishing the drinks and taking a quick shot of ouzo, a Greek spirit with a very strong anise flavor, (It went down smooth!), we walked five minutes from our hotel to the center of the tourist district of Psiri (Prissy, as we call it).  This was a picturesque cobblestone street, lined with bars and restaurants filled with people, late on a Monday night!  We stopped at a cafe for a drink (more Mythos) and Lauren ordered an order of fries because she is perpetually hungry on this trip.  The cafe seated us outdoors and played hilarious 90's music like TLC's No Scrub. haha!!  We loved it.  Lauren later dropped a full bottle of beer on the street and shattered it.  The waiter didn't seem happy, so we pounded the beers and fries and moved on.  We stopped at another interesting place with colored lighting, loud music and beautiful views of the Acropolis.  We had a different local beer there, and Lauren ordered more food.  Long story short, the food never showed us, so we left nearly empty handed.  Dan had stolen a beer glass from the last bar unbeknownst to us and proceeded to do the same from this bar.  With a little help from me we managed to make it home with three very nice and very free, Greek souvenirs.  We made a pit stop at a gyro place and Lauren and I bought pork gyros for 2€, which is deceiving because it feels like paying for food with quarters, but really equates to about $3!  Either way, the gyros were delicious and definitely hit the spot.  We made it back to the Jason Inn Hotel (We are not sure why it is both and inn and a hotel, for that matter, shouldn't we attend Saint Louis University College..) polished off the gyros and happily and sleepily ended night one in Europe!!

View from our hotel restaurant 

I don't want no scrub... 

See ya Mythos!

And the Adventure Begins

As I sit here in seat 39A of Iberia Airlines' flight 6274 from Chicago to Madrid awaiting my ginger ale and pretzels, I have decided to begin what I am certain will eventually become a very long and very detailed travel blog. I apologize in advance, but will bear in mind the numerous friends and family back at home traveling vicariously through me and this blog. I promise to take us on an unforgettable European adventure. Fasten your seat belts!

I would like to preface this blog with a short explanation and history of the Blake News. It began in 2006. At the recommendation of Gayle Eilers, I carefully documented our two week trip to Netzbach, Germany and Paris in a small notebook with a pencil. Since then, the journaling has modernized into short notes on the iPhone throughout Europe in 2008, detailed "Blake News" e-mails sent home from Germany in 2009 and then, even more e-mails from Germany in 2011, titled The Blake and Jenna News. This time around, the audience has grown and so too has the trip. I will be spending the entire fall semester studying at SLU's campus in Madrid, Spain. Today I am traveling to Athens, Greece with friends, Dan and Lauren, to spend a week sightseeing before beginning classes next week in Madrid. Once class begins, we plan to travel on the weekends both around Spain and throughout Europe. Therefore, I intend to keep everyone abreast as I take the "Blake News 2 Spain". ¡Que todos disfruten!"

Our first day of travel was long anticipated and much prepared for. Days of errands, chores, lists and packing. Followed by unpacking, unpacking and more unpacking until my ONE checked bag arrived at the notorious 50 pound limit. Quite a feat for me! My last day at home, was spent poolside with countless friends and family members gathered to send me off in typical O'Connor Oasis style. It was a perfect end to the summer and an even better beginning to this experience. I cannot thank everyone enough for that wonderful day! Today was slightly less joyful with a slightly bipolar and weepy ride to St. Louis, followed by an emotional goodbye at the airport as our parents sent us off into security. We boarded our first flight to Chicago and practically 15 minutes later we touched down in the windy city. On the quick trip, we studied some of Dan's Greek flashcards from high school and come to find out, they were ancient Greek! So, at best, we will sound like Greek speaking Shakespeares trotting around Athens. We walked to our next gate, regrouped, quadruple checked for our passports and had a quick snack at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. Dan began to fidget with his new million dollar DSLR camera which evidentially transformed him into a borderline professional photographer in a few months. Perfect - less photos I have to take! Unfortunately we were unable to get seats next to each other on the plane, since the seats were assigned randomly.  Lauren and I lucked out with window seats and Dan got stuck in the middle. After ditching my bag all the way across the plane in an overhead bin (hope it's there when we land) I took my seat next to Carlos, a very nice 16 year old kid from Valencia, Spain. We chatted about his time in the US and his life in Valencia. He convinced me to go there to see the beaches, museums and famous zoo. We watched Los Juegos del Hambre (The Hunger Games) in Spanish, nibbled on the chicken dinner and gossiped about the loud and rowdy family behind us that received kosher meals, before trying to sleep a little. I managed to look out the window after the captain said we would be passing over New York and really think I caught a poor quality picture of NYC. I have attached the photo and you vaguely make out Manhattan and Central Park! The flight actually seemed to go quickly for me and as we landed in Madrid, there was a cool camera mounted on the tail of the plane, which showed us a live view of the landing. We walked 20 miles around the ultra-modern Madrid-Barajas airport to find our connecting flight. We took a rest in a big food court to reflect on our trip and plan some activities for Athens. We had a snack and only threatened to have a beer. We were so confused that it seemed like nighttime, but was really 8 AM. However, we did see another couple having a beer, so we considered it. Haha! We slept through nearly our entire next flight now that we were seated back together. I woke up at the exact moment the flight attendant was hovering over me to serve lunch. I sleepily ate my whole meal (with Lauren stealing only a bite) and went back to sleep. We landed in Athens, nervously awaited our bags and hopped in a cab to head into town! The traveling was finally over!!