Part II: Athens, Greece

Columns, Ruins, etc.
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I don't remember much of the flight from Dublin to Athens, except that it was a smaller plane and nothing was free--not even the sodas and waters. We landed in Athens about 9pm local time. By the time we got to our hotel it was nearly 10pm, but the rooftop restaurant was still open and we were able to enjoy a light supper, Greek wine and a perfect view of the Parthenon. Sleep that night was easy.

So easy, that we woke up pretty late Sunday morning--around 10:30am. We had missed the free breakfast at our hotel, and by the time we were up and showered it was almost noon. We only had one full day in Athens, so we headed right for the Acropolis to see all the ancient ruins in a sort of speed-tour (unguided, as fast as we could walk, with brief breaks to comtemplate the scenery, not really knowing what we were looking at). Due to insufficient time or planning for many sites, speed-touring would become the theme of our vacation. Seeing the ruins at the Acropolis was surreal, striking, and humbling. I tried to remember all the lessons I had on greek architecture and column styles in art school (but failed). Andrew is more of a ruins-guy than I am, I was more interested in the landscape below, and the distant Aegean Sea.

e only had one full day in Athens, so we headed right for the Acropolis...

Our Rooftop View
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Did I mention that it was over 40 degrees celcius in Athens that day? (I didn't know that 40C = 104F until we reached home. No wonder I felt like I did).

After injesting all the sights and ruins we could handle at the time, we headed down towards the Plaka to find whatever shopping, eating and refreshment we could. Unfortunately all the cool shops were closed. This could have been due to the day of the week (Sunday), or, as we learned eventually, the time of day (2:00pm-5:00pm = siesta time). Those Europeans sure know how to live. Get everything done, including work, before 2pm (while the sun is not too hot), and then go home and take a nap until dinner. We didn't see many, if any, stressed out greeks. Or italians, for that matter.

After Dinner Photo
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We did find an open taverna with lots of umbrellas and trees for shade. I had my first authentic greek salad, and Andrew had his first of many plates of spaghetti bolognese. A bottle of greek white wine and lots of Acqua Minerale, and we were off for more exploration. But the further we walked, the more inviting those little tavernas became and we found ourselves at another one soon after. We got a little lost in the side streets and eventually made our way back to our hotel, exhausted.

Sunday night we had dinner plans at a restaurant that boasted a menu of only authentic, ancient greek foods--leaving out any ingredients that didn't exist in greece prior to the importation of tomatoes, sugar, grapes and so on. Sounded interesting.

Stadium Seating
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Our hotel concierge hired us a cab and we were off. The driver knew no english (the first such problem we had encountered so far) and took us to the correct address, eventually--but the restaurant was closed. So he then said something in greek, threw in the words "Beautiful restaurant," and took us on what seemed to be the longest, scariest cab ride in history, through seedy districts and past large football stadiums to what seemed to be Pireaus. Finally, he dropped us off at a restaurant called Zorba's which was in two places: the kitchen and main dining room was at the base of a hotel on one side of a very busy street. The outdoor seating was on the other, consequently on the water of some kind of harbor with lots of little sailboats and fishing boats. It was unexpectedly and thankfully beautiful.

View of Athens
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Once my heart rate slowed down to somewhat normal, I was able to take in the scenery with Andrew and relax. We enjoyed our meal, including the local sea bass that was cleaned and fileted right at our table, and a chocolate oozing dessert. We lingered in the area for a while, tried another waterside bar after dinner, then finally felt tired around 12:30pm and took another cab back to the hotel. Who spoke english fine, and also seemed to charge us a lot more than our previous old friend.

Partly from jetlag, and partly from knowing that we had a 7am ferry the next morning, I could not sleep that night. Another recurring theme of the week for me--very bad sleep. A driver came to pick us up at 6am at the hotel and took us quickly to the port (the same port that it seemingly took hours to reach the night before for dinner). I prepared myself for a 3 hour trip to the island of Sifnos. I was done with hot Athens and couldn't wait to get there. I popped a greek Dramamine, downed a cold frappe and some warm spinach pie and I was ready to go.