We decided we would spend a day (and a half-ish) in Athens, then take a ferry to go island hopping. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Usually I'm fairly diligent about doing the research before. But this time we all pretty much winged it. Michael and I bought the book “Mythology” from Half Price books and would read about 5 minutes every night before bed time. So, we no where near finished it. The only things I knew about Athens was that it was hot and I thought about “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” and that the people would be somewhat similar.
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| My Mom took this picture and asked that we stand awkwardly and to the side so you could see our backpacks. Hi Mom. |
We finally arrived on Saturday to a wet and muggy day in Athens. On the train ride over, I went up the escalator and a middle aged, well dressed man attempted to unzip my backpack. I turned around before he was able get anything. Honestly, the most he would have snagged would have been a light up flower crown, socks, and a beat up iPhone charger. After circling the area, a very nice man on a motor bike stopped and led us to the Hotel Intercontinental where we met up with friends (with our friend's hotel points, of course!).
We left the hotel immediately, sparing no time to lounge around, a common theme with all our European trips. We went straight to eat and found an outdoor cafe near the Acropolis. The sun was just peaking out so it made for a perfect spot. Our waiter called himself Christmas and chuckled after every word or so. I already loved Greece.
He brought out chilled red wine in a carafe and we drank and had actual Greek salads.
We wanted ample amount of time to spend at the Acropolis to see the Parthenon, so we opted for the Acropolis museum. Fun fact: we snuck in. This isn't my first time. And we didn't really mean to, we just thought we were taking up the elevator, but we did and that's that.
The museum was filled with information about Greece, Athens, The Acropolis and how the Parthenon came to be, destroyed, and the renovations going on now. It's definitely something to check out.
The coolest part was that just a few years ago while building the museum they found ruins from an ancient city!
The nice thing about Athens is that you can get just about anywhere in the city center on foot, so it was off to Zeus' Temple. We snapped pictures at sunset and the boys took turns doing silly poses and then ran around the Olympian track.
We then walked through the National Gardens where there was the zoo. For some very strange reason they had pigeons on display. We kept on walking, past the government and other important buildings, then waited for our shuttle in the main square.
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| My outfit kind of blended in with the ruins… |
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| Ferry in Athens heading to Santorini. |
Check out my posts on the Greek islands of Santorini and Crete!
