Sorry for the delay folks! We have been meeting with a lot of friends and family since we got to Athens, and I couldn't keep up the pace of near-daily updates. Hopefully I can catch up soon!
In Athens we met up with Sierra's brother, Aaron, and his girlfriend Célinie. It was great to have some traveling companions for a while, and nice to finally meet them! They were on a 1-week vacation to Athens, so it was a nice chance to slow our pace and stay in the same place for a while.
Our air BnB didn't work out too smoothly upon arrival, but the owner of the restaurant (Adonis) next door helped us in a full-on scavenger hunt for the key. He was a funny guy, and as the first person we met in Athens, we were excited to find him so accommodating. As a shout out to Air BnB: they gave us a few free nights after a mishap with the room, so we ended up moving to a nice boutique hotel one block from Aaron and Célinie.
Our time with Aaron and Célinie was mostly filled with great wine and good food. Célinie really knows her wine, so a lot of the time three of us would follow her around and let her lead us to the best wine menu.
The meatballs were delicious and usually the grape leaves. I love the grilled Haloumi cheese (squeaky) but I'm not sure the rest did. We hit up a restaurant
recommended by my sister, Daphne's, and had an awesome dinner. They advertised that Brangelina had been there...which is kind of humorous since apparently they have been to half of the hotels and restaurants in Europe. We hit up a place called "Yard" that was a little modern place that had great wine and great food. We loved it so much we went back later in the week. A few doors down, we followed the urging of a very rotund man (looked a little like Humpty Dumpty or maybe tweedle dee) to sit down and have him sommelier for us. He didn't disappoint, and again we went back to this restaurant.
We had some hits and some missed food-wise, by all in all it was good food and great wine...thanks to our wine guide Célinie!
The first full day, we did a hop-on/hop-off tour and saw a cool museum which taught us about Ancient Greece, the Panathenaen Stadium (pictured below) and made a failed attempt to see the Acropolis.
Sierra and I don't often do tons of museums, but this one was well done and had some color-coded charts to explain all of the different time periods, different empires, and which artifacts were associated with each. It tied in well with our recently-obtained knowledge of the Roman Empire, and it was neat to learn about the migration of early humans over time.
I celebrate winning first place at the March 9, 2015 Olympiad.
The stadium looked more modern than some we'd seen, and we rented headsets and got some cool history. Man, did the Greeks like naked men. Apparently all Olympians were naked. There was a two-headed statue of a young man looking towards the emperor and an old man looking at the games. The creepy part was that they both had some detailed manscaping and the old man was very aroused by the games...if you know what I mean. All of the statues of men in Greece are nude, unless they are a philosopher...and all of the women statues are clothed.
We learned that the word "stadium" comes from the fact that the one lap around the track was called a stade. We also learned that "gymnasium" came from where the nude men trained for the games. My guess is that they also manscaped each other at that location.
After this we took the bus to the Acropolis, but it was closed for the day. Seems like everything closes at three around here. Anyway we would just try again the next day, as we have quite a lot of time left in Athens.
A shot of the beautiful theatre--I believe they still have shows here, and there was an Elton John concert here a few years ago.
We hit up the Acropolis museum the next day, and then the Acropolis itself. Most of the buildings were destroyed when Athens was overthrown, but the Acropolis (including the Parthenon) was left standing. It looks beautiful from all over Athens, towering over the city and illuminated for us modern-day visitors to ogle at. We also took in a few sunsets with the Acropolis watching over us.
On the 4th day we took in Delphi - which is where the oracle was, and which was a lost city for years until Archeologists were able to find it and escavate. It was probably the most impressive thing I saw in Greece, even though the stadium area was closed for the winter. We had a tour guide on this one, but Aaron and I thought she might have been a bit biased. She looked a bit like one of the characters in "my big fat Greek Wedding," and much like the Greeks in that movie, she seemed to portray them as wonderful and infallible and the creators of everything. But it was in a fun way. For instance, she said that the leaders of fueding nations or city-states would meet here in person to talk out their differences and prevent war. She said they basically created diplomacy and were super duper nice guys. She also said the reason they had a theatre and a stadium were because teamwork is the most important thing in life since it shows you can get along. I'm pretty sure they just had a theatre and a stadium as an offering to entertain the gods...but whatevs. Oh and she also said that everyone believed the world to be flat except the Greeks...and they let two birds go on opposite sides of the planet and they met here...which made it the center of the earth and meant that the world is round. She was really good though, and spoke French and English the whole time so we were happy.
After the tour we had lunch at a nearby restaurant, and our tour guide took us for one last stop in the hometown of the famous Greek doctor who invented the Pap smear. Check that off my bucket list! 😃
We rode back to Athens and had another chill night of dinner and a bottle of wine :)
Apparently the Delfinians got really good cell phone reception. No wait. Apparently Verizon built these pillars. I dunno...insert cell phone joke here.
Same pillars, different angle
A hill...from the days of yore
Back in Athens, we went to a nice bar on Aaron and Celenie's rooftop for a drink at sunset, then to Yard again and had a lovely dinner.
We had free rose brandy. Most of the restaurants here give a glass of brandy free for dessert, but this place gave some great rose Brandy and just left us the bottle for a bit. We liked the Rose flavor the best I think.
I think this was the Temple of Zeus...The pillar you see here toppled about 200 years ago in a major windstorm.
You can see the "villa cinemas" sign...this is the actual entrance to a modern theatre. Note the graffiti, which is present on every wall in Athens.
This is the "3D game room" area of the theatre
One other thing to note was how many cute dogs were just chilling in Athens. They looked so relaxed...which is reflective of the people in Greece I suppose. Here are a few of of furry buddies:
At the Acropolis museum
Maxin' relaxin' at the plaza
We also saw quite a few felines at Delphi:
All in all, Athens may not have been our top city but it was a good place to slow down after about three weeks of fast-paced travel. It was wonderful to spend time with Aaron and Célinie too! Our only regret was that we never rode the "Happy Train...a small train that drives kids (and adults with a sense of humor) around the main parts of town. We did learn that A&C were able to ride it the day we left for Crete.
On to the island!
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