ATHENS!

Day 1:

Arrived safely in Athens yesterday!  It was the most beautiful airport arrival I've ever seen.. we literally flew over the hills and little villages of Greece and into the heart of Athens.  It was breathtaking.

The city itself really makes you feel inadequate.  Our hostel is RIGHT underneath the Acropolis, which has to be one of the coolest places I've ever seen.  The view from the top is incredible; pictures to come!  I didn't bring an uploading cord, so pictures will be en mass at the end of the trip.. be prepared!

We (Sara, Steph and I) did get asked if we were Greek, today... WIN!  I take that as a huge compliment.  Apparently we're not too outrightly American!

Throat is still sucky from the UK weather, although the mediterranean sure is helping it to feel better.  Can't wait for another two whole days here.. visiting an island, the top of a giant hill over Athens and many more things!

Also, why can't I eat this food all the time?  Gyros and greek salads are a necessity in my life, forever.

Love from Greece!

Day 2:

Pretty sure that my main goal in life is to buy a house on a Greek island.  I don't even much care which island it is... the Aegean Sea has to be one of the most serene, beautiful places I've ever been.  Sara and I traveled to Aegina, the closest island to Greece, and had a great time.  We rented bikes to save our legs and ended up just touring the island and lounging on the beach (don't forget eating gelato.. which I've done consistently every day thus far).  It was the most relaxing adventure, by far.

Before we went to the island I went and checked out the remains of Zeus's temple, which was also cool.. not too much left of it, but you can tell that it was once massive (much bigger than the Parthenon).

The weather today couldn't have been more perfect.  We're definitely becoming jaded... we checked Rome's temperature and were very disheartened by the fact that we will be journeying to a place that is 20 degrees colder than here.  Not cool.  The Greeks, however, think this 65 degree weather is absolutely freezing.. we saw several women in down jackets and parkas.  Yipes.

Off to eat dinner (yes, after 7pm... they stare at you before then.)

Day 3

I went to the new Museum of the Acropolis, which had a lot of the statues salvaged from the Parthenon's facade.  It was interesting to see how many statues had survived the consistent plundering of the temple (and burning/exploding) over time... and so sad to realize how much had been lost.

I walked around Monastiraki (a huge shopping district) and Plaka (another big shopping district, where our hostel was located) and found a great bracelet to remind me of the Athens experience.  It's a silver bracelet with Phaistos disk pieces (the original disk is of fired clay from the Minoan palace of Pahistos on the Greek island of Crete, possibly dating to the middle or late Minoan Bronze age... 2nd Millennium BC.  Its meaning is unknown, making it one of the most interesting pieces of Greek archaeology).

Phaistos Disk

We also had a lovely final dinner in our favorite Taverna with very authentic Greek fare.  Pictures to come of the Taverna!  After, we found the coolest bar right near our hostel.. it was decorated in bottles of different colored liquids so that it appeared that the walls were all different colors.  I took a picture of that too, so I'll be sure to upload it.  The bartender kept making us shooters of his own creation... I actually did one with mayonnaise in it.  Not the best decision, but it wasn't half bad!  Tasted a lot like licorice.

Day 4

We got up early and headed to the airport for our flight to Rome.  The flight ended up being 2 hours because of a strong headwind but it wasn't too bad.  Next post Roma!

The Acropolis