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