Athens - As the Gods smile down

From Venice, we flew to Athens, Greece. After a stopever in Rome, we got in at 10:30 at night, and had to take an express bus and then a metro to get to our place. We made it just in time, as they were closing the gates of the metro right behind us as we were leaving. On our wayfrom the station to our hotel, as wewere walking through the streets of Athens, a man was leaning out of a bar, and eyeing us suspiciously. We were kind of cautious, expecially when he looked at us, pointed and said, "up the street and on the left." Three minutes later, we found out he was nicely giving us directions to the hostel. Apparently, a lot of backpackers come that way. We made quick friends with the hostel staff, and after being shown to our room, we made for the bar downstairs for our free welcome drink. That turned out to be a welcome shot of Ozou (a local delicasy if you will). A few beers and a few shots of Ozou later we made off to our room and to bed.

The next day, we decided to sleep in and rest, epecially since we had stayed up late the night before, discussing our trip, politics, and other places to see with the friendly backpackers and hostel staff. We spent our first day in Greece exploring part of Athens, eating local food from shops along the street, and then hitting up the National Archeological Museum. After looking at priceless statues, vases, mosaics, jewelry and gold wreaths for the better part of 4 hours, we were tuckered out and returned to our hostel for dinner, where we were severd a large greek salad, garlic bread, and homemade mousaka, a greek delicacy of eggplant, beef, potatoes, cheese, and some sort of biscuit topping (all for the low price of 6 euro per person).

Our second day in Athens consisted of romping around another neighborhood and checking out the small shops over by the Acropolis. For dinner we had lamb and potatoes, cooked in a ceramic pot (so good!!!), we walked for a bit, then noticed everyone around us was heading up a certain street. We decided to follow and see what was up. To our surprise, we found ourselves at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient greek theatre on the acropolis that still holds modern performances. We walked up to the ticket booth to see what the deal was, and it looked like all tickets were at least $70 per person, but suddenly the ticket person asked us if we were students and we said "yes!" so we got tickets for only $27 each. We didnt even know what show it was until we got into the theatre and found out it was the opera, "Aida." We couldn't understand the Italian singing, nor the Greek subtitles, but we could still tell the story through just the expression in song and acting. It was an incredibly magical experience to see an opera in a 2500 year old theatre.

On our third day in Athens, we decided to opt for the walking tour, provided by our hostel, of the ancient sites, which was well worth it. We saw all of the Acropolis, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's library, the roman Agora, the greek Agora, the places where St. Paul converted christians and many more sites, where many other famous people walked, including Seneca, Socrates, Euripidies, and anyone else who came through Athens in atinquity. What a place! We saw all sorts of columns, statues, temples, carvings, and ruins of all sorts.

We really cant say enough about Athens and Greece. The people are nice, things are much less expensive than western Europe, the history is great and the food tastes wonderful. This may be our favorite place so far. However, the owners of the greek restaurant near our house in California said that the islands were the best part of Greece, so we are excited to head there next. Our ferry leaves Athens at 7:30 AM, so it will be an early start tomorrow!!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the stories and pictures!

Until next time, Eric and Laura

Laura outside a 10th century Byzantine church.

Laura and Eric in front of a marble statue of Aphrodite, Pan, and Cupid in the National Archeological Museum.

Eric in front of the reputed death mask of Agamemnon in the National Archeological Museum. Yes, its real gold.

Eric in front of the famous bronze, horse and rider statue, in the National Archeological Museum.

Laura and Eric in front of a huge ancient mosaic in the National Archeological Museum.

Eric getting a haircut in Athens after a day at the museum. It is HOT!!!

Eric and Laura in front of the Odeon of Heroditus Atticus Theatre. Awsome!!!

Eric, in front of a voting booth. Yes, this is how they do it in Greece. I think more people would vote in American if our polling places looked like this.

Laura in front of Hadrian's Library.

Laura and Eric, on a ramble after dinner.

Laura and Eric, wandering the neighborhoods below the Acropolis.

Eric next to a guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

Laura in front of the Zappeon building, a famous government place in Athens.

Laura and Eric at the Temple of Olympian Zeus. There used to be 104 large stone columns, but it was dismantled during the Turkish occupation. Damn!!!

Laura, sitting on an ancient chair, in the Theatre of Dionysis, on the Acropolis.

The Odeon of Herodeus Atticus on the Acropolis. The ancient theatre where we saw the opera the night before. You can still see the set.

Eric checking out he guidebook in front of the Propylaea, or gate of the Acropolis.

Laura and Eric on the Acropolis in front of the Erechtheum (a temple to Posideon).

Eric on top of the Acropolis, with the Parthenon (left) and the Erechtheum (right).

Laura, looking out on the city of Athens from on top the Acropolis. Vladimir, our Slovenian friend, is also in the picture.

Eric with our walking tour, including our tour guide, Walter, from South Carolina and friend from Sloveinia, Vladimir. Shout Out! We are on the Rock of Ares, where the first supreme court of Athens met.

Eric and Laura in the Roman Agora, in front of a water clock built in the 1st century AD.

Laura looking up at 10th century frescoes in the Church of the Apostles, which was built on the spot in the Greek Agora where St. Paul converted pagans to christians.