“GREECE” IS THE WORD!

Idalis: What a pleasant surprise! After spending two wonderful weeks with Kevin's parents in Italy, we were looking forward to our next destination, Greece. But, we had read about Athens, considered a dirty, polluted city by both people who had visited, and our guidebook.

Well, we love it! Yesterday, our first day here in Athens, was great! Our flight from Rome to Athens was smooth (and included a meal and sweets – Agean Airlines gives you a candy as soon as you sit down!). We got a little lost arriving at our hostel, having confused the metro and train lines, but eventually found our way to Hotel Zorbas. Our hostel is neat and tidy, with no-frills accommodations and the required musty smell in the bathroom, but includes free internet access, has a friendly staff, and is in walking distance to the famous ruins. We rested for a few hours once arriving, but then got hungry. After talking to Yanis, the hostel desk clerk, we decided to go to the Psiri district of Athens for dinner. I will never forget walking down Athinas Street at night and having come to the end of the main drag, looking up and seeing the Acropolis lit up at night. We had finally arrived in Greece!

After walking through this quaint little section of town, filled with about 40 tavernas (!), and consulting our now well-worn guidebook, we decided on Taverna tou Psiri. What a joy to the senses! Kevin and I shared a Greek salad with finger-licking feta, stuffed eggplant (OMG!!!), and moussaka (a heavenly Greek casserole with eggplant, ground meat, and bechamel sauce). We sopped it all up with grilled bread sprinkled with olive oil and oregano, and washed it down with cold glasses of Mythos on tap. It was a memorable meal, included great service (thank you Athenal!), and cost about half of a meal in Italy! The gods DO reside here!

This morning, we headed towards the ruins. Too many to mention, I'll just say this: Hiking to the top of the Acropolis has been one of the great highlights of this trip. Although many of the monuments have scaffolding and tourists (what a bummer – both are everywhere we've been!), neither can take away from the sheer beauty of these ancient ruins. I loved the Parthenon, with its graceful columns. My favorite part of today was touching the old, cool marble carvings, feeling the grooves the old Greek etchings made, and thinking of how many hundreds of thousands of others before me have placed their fingers in the same spot. Ancient Greece seems to be filled with layers of history, just like an onion with its many skins.

Kevin
Monday, September29th at 13:03

Dear Athens,
I am afraid that we owe you an apology. You see, we entered with preconceived notions and impressions. Everything that we read and everything that we heard made us to believe that you were a dirty city, choked with pollution and traffic congestion, that your people were not hospitable and that the language barrier was a challenge. Well, I must stand and vehemently deny these allegations. I have found you to be a marvelous place. Your ruins have amazed and awe inspired us, your food has entranced us and your people have embraced us. In fact, we were so pleasantly surprised that the contradiction in what we heard and what we experienced was as vast as your historical prowess. In ending, I would like to say thank you!
Our second full day in Athens was even better than the first. It was a Sunday, it was slightly overcast and the temperature was hovering perfectly between not too cold and not too warm. We started our day by entering the metro station. We paid for our tickets and they did not print. Witnessing our dilema, a Greek woman standing beside us walked us over to the attendant and negotiated, in Greek, to get us replacement tickets. We failed to get her name, but whoever she was, we would like to thank her again for being so kind. Upon exiting the metro at our stop, Sindagma, we noticed an information booth. So, with the intent to simply ask one question concerning a bus route we would need for our next location, we approached the young couple attending the booth. Much to our surprise, not only did they answer our question, in perfect English, but they also gave us a copy of a map of Greece and the islands that we had scoured every book store for and could not find, they also gave us an English to Greek translation book, which we left in the hostel for use by others, information about the city of Athens “green” initiative and a touristic map of the city with all the sites easily locatable and recognizable. We offered our sincerest thanks and proceeded to cross the street. We coincidentally ended up directly in front of the Parliament building, and perhaps more importantly, the 'Tomb of the Unknown soldier'. Furthermore, we arrived right at the changing of the guards, which was an incredible and moving sight to behold. The precision and discipline involved in this ceremony is truly humbling. I took note of one of the soldiers trembling to hold the rigid and precise in one of the transitional movements. I am not a huge fan of military, because it usual correlates with war, and even worse killing. However, when you are witness to such an incredible display of honor and integrity, you cannot help but to be moved. So, we then meandered into the 'National Gardens', where we proceeded to get lost and passed the same W/C three times before we were able to find the Zappeion, where we decided to sit and research our next move while catching some rest.

While reading the free literature we got from the friendly couple in the information booth, we noticed a photo of a sculpture in a public park that we decided we wanted to see live. So, we were off. First in line, however, was the 'Temple of Olympian Zeus, where fifteen columns remain that stand 17meters high and one column that was toppled by a violent storm in the 1800's. Originally there were a total of 104 columns. I can only imagine how impressive the total structure must have been seeing as the remaining columns were enough to impose their massive size and presence on you while standing adjacent to them. Immediately adjacent is Hadrian's Arch, the guy who is pretty much responsible for completing all the existing monuments. Interesting is the opposing sides of the arch with contradictory etchings that read the following: west side “This is Athens, the City of Theseus.”, east side “This is the city of Hadrian, not Theseus”. Next stop was the Olympic Stadium constructed for the 2004 summer Olympics. Made entirely of marble and towering over the track below, Idalis and I wondered what it would have been like to have competed with all those people either yelling for you or against you. We wanted to run a lap, but sadly, it was locked and inaccessible. We pressed on towards the intersection of Vassileos Sofias and Vassileos Kanstandinou where we were overcome by the massive and quite humorous “Dromeas” statue. It towers approximately 30' high and is made entirely of sheets of glass and resembles a running man in motion. Well worth the hike into the outskirts of the ancient city center. Not feeling up to a long walk and starting to grow a bit weary, we jumped on the metro at the Evangelismos station and exited at Thissio, where we had just enough energy to explore the Ancient Greek Agora. In these ruins we were privy to one of the most well preserved monuments of the ancient world, the Temple of Hephaestus, dating back to about 400BC, the Church of the Holy Apostles, a church modified numerous times, most recently by the Christians in the 11th century and then the Stoa of Attalos, which included a reconstructed and refurbished building that was completed by an American architect in the 50's, twentieth century, that is. It is here that we quite possibly walked on the same path, sat on the same bench and gazed at the same vistas as Socrates. Dare I say that we even felt slightly more intelligent and intuitive.

By this time we were completely exhausted and could not stand the thought of trudging through yet another ruin. So, feeling that we had really seen an amazing amount of Athens, we pressed on to Psiri, the part of town where we had enjoyed our first meal upon arriving in Athens, and treated ourselves to a great “sit down” meal consisting of homemade hummus, tabouli salad and a mix grill, which included, lamb, chicken, steak and minced meat. On the way back to the hostel, we bought a bottle of Greek wine and were treated to free samples of candy from the shopkeeper. We drank our bottle, got on line to accomplish a few things and fell asleep for what would be our last night in Athens, for tomorrow we wake up and head to the Peloponnese Island where we have reservations in a small bungalow, for at least three days, in the town of Nafplio, where we hope to rest, relax and score some quality beach time. Until then, 'sas efharisto' to our readers, sas efharisto to Athens, and most importantly, sas efharisto to the Gods for making this such a wonderful trip!