Day 13
Greece, WOW. Coming into port was gorgeous. We had to wait around a while for our bus to Athens and it was a little confusing, but no issues. It was a somewhat long drive to Athens, a few hours, and I was in awe the entire time. Greece is the most beautiful country I've ever seen, rocky mountains and clear blue sea, absolutely breathtaking. We had some difficulty finding our hostel when we got into the city. We stopped in a tourism office and got a map, the man working was very helpful and showed us where to go. We weren't far away at all, we probably walked past the place about 3 times, it was on a street just off the main street we were on, google map told me to turn on a street that definitely did not exist. After getting settled we went out to explore the area. We were in a great location, right by the Akropolis and main part of town. We walked down the main shopping street and found some dinner. I had a gyro dish and ouzo. Kristin tried some and liked it and this is a girl who would live on burgers and fries if she could, so that made me happy. We walked around more after dinner and saw the Akropolis lit up at night, beautiful. That was the day, so far we were both really loving Athens.
Day 14
Our one full day in Athens. We saw the Akropolis first. Finding the ticket booth was more difficult than you'd think it would be, we didn't end up going way out of the way or anything, it just wasn't marked very well. We got in for free, score, with our student I.D.s. Turns out all 3 buildings on the hill have been restored to the extent of being disassembled again, there were even some cement copies of things. There was a lot of scaffolding too. It kind of takes away from the authenticity of it all, but they were still really beautiful buildings and they're up on a hill so the view is gorgeous as well. We went down to the Agora next, the lady at the ticket booth wasn't going to let Kristin in with her I.D. at first, but I guess she changed her mind. It's amazing to think how much they could do 2500 years ago, so much had already been discovered and invented and this was the place where the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Homer, et al were writing (or orating) things we still study today, 2500 years later, unbelievable. The weather was perfect too. Dear future husband, we're honeymooning in Greece. We did some souvenir shopping and had lunch after we were done exploring ancient Athens. We sat in the National Gardens before we had to go back to the hostel to meet Regina. Turns out she'd been in Rome the same time we were, she had quite the unpleasant experience with lost reservations and trying to find a place to stay in the middle of the night. I'm so glad this trip has gone smoothly, minus a few minor issues trying to find hostels, overall no major black marks...thus far, knock on wood. We all went to the main square to meet Christine and Angela, friends from Brussles - Bentley kids. We talked for a while and then Kristin and I rode out to olympic stadium, she really wanted to see it - olympic stadium in the place where the olympics started. I think it's kind of odd how they just keep all the stadiums after the games are over, what do they use them for? Oh well. Random note about Athens: there are dogs EVERYWHERE with no owners to speak of. They just wander the streets and they're not mangy or dirty or starved-looking or mean. They don't bother you at all, they're just there. Something I've never seen before. ANYWAYS...after exploring olympic stadium a bit, which Kristin really enjoyed, we went back to the city center for dinner. I had moussaka, a baked dish with ground beef, eggplant, potatoes, tomato sauce and cheese, it was good. I'm going to make an effort to cook more when I go home, this dish can't be that hard to make and I need to build up some skills. Well, we'll see. All in all, Athens was wonderful and I definitely want to see more of Greece. Now off to Paris!
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