Athens, Greece

Athens was an incredible surprise! It was much bigger than I originally imagined, call it my ignorance but I never really thought about Athens outside of the Acropolis. But it was a surprise to see all the culture this city has to offer.

I was warned before I left about the constant upheaval in Athens because of the Greek financial crisis. My friend went a couple weeks ago and told us a funny and somewhat frightening story about the current situation. He was couch surfing with a guy when they decided to head to Starbucks to wait for some local friends. They got to where the Starbucks had been and looked around at an empty lot filled with debris. "Oh yeah, " his host says nonchalantly, " I forgot they burned it down." I hope you have the same face I did when I heard that story; eyebrows up, eyes to the side and the expression that half laughs half cries, "wahh?.." Athens, however was very safe and being tourists we were never involved and were luckily never forced to be involved. We did see freshly painted anarchy signs and steered clear of a protest but as long as you're aware of it- there was no harm. On returning, my friends who went to Spain and Germany for the break said they saw more protest there then we saw in Greece!  The ferry strike did, however, affect a lot of people at our hostel and my friend who was supposed to go to Santorini with me. The ferry strike was to end on Wednesday at 6:00am and my ferry left at 7:25am! SO I missed the ferry strike by an hour and a half, a close call!

On finding the hostel we took a hike up Lykavittos which overlooks the whole city! At first site of the Acropolis I lost my breath! We watched the sun set over the city and were all happy to be in a city of such incredible history.

We got up early and had our sights set on exploring every archaeological site in Athens! We started with the Archaeological Museum and then went to the Acropolis and saw every ruin imaginable! We did a lot of walking and were happy to take a nap at the "Democracy mountain", the birth place of Democracy where the first group had meetings! We ate at a little cafe and I splurged on the Menu which reminded me of "Menu del Dia" in Spain. I got Greek Salad (oh the feta!) and Gyros plus fruit for dessert! Yumm... I tried Greek Baklava and fell asleep happy having accomplished so much in two days!!

First sight of the Acropolis!

The view from the top

Some incredible artifacts at the museum

Theater of Dionysus 

On top of democracy hill- post nap

Original Olympic stadium