Athens!

It's September 13th -- It's been almost 7 days since my last glimpses of Vancouver!

We're in Poros, Kefalonia now, all settled in and aquainted with the town (and the beach!)

Athens was stellar! Definitely wouldn't want to live there - it's not a very clean city - but it was soooo interesting and different and quaint!

The six of us who had travelled together on the flight I described in my last post arrived at our hotel around 12:30-12:45am. Michelle, Simon and I shared a taxi and after comparing prices with everyone else found that we'd been given a pretty good deal (about 38 euros, a lot of others paid closer to 40-45 or even 50!).

Geoffrey (our prof) was waiting up for us and welcomed us each with a hug and a huge sigh of relief. He let us call home with his phone card and offered to venture out to find us some food if we needed it. His friendliness was just what we all needed, I think.

I fell asleep as soon as (or maybe even before) my head hit the pillow and felt fairly well-rested by the time I had to get up for breakfast and head with the group to start our 2-day archaeological tour! We started by walking up to the Acropolis (pictures to come...) which was incredible (though crowded). I still can't believe that we were staying within a 10-minute walk from it! We were also within walking distance of everywhere else we went to other than the national museum on day 2.

After the Acropolis we went to the "Plaka" (market) for lunch and to grab a few souvenirs for those so inclined. After that, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the brand-new Acropolis Museum! No pictures of the inside of that because there were a few items on display that are still unpublished (how cool is that!?)

In the later afternoon, Michelle and I decided to walk up the "Hill of the Muses" which was right behind our hotel to get some sunset and night shots of the Acropolis. Much to our surprise, 16 or 17 of the 19 people in our group decided to join us! Fun times! I think this was one of the highlights for me... It was one of the first more low-key adventures that we've had. On our way down the hill, Michelle, Leesa, Amanada, Katie and I (who had stayed up at the top of the hill for a few minutes longer than the rest of the gang) met an American from Washington, DC who let me borrow his tripod to get a SWEET photo of the Acropolis after the sun went down.

In the evening, the six of us who had been stuck in Heathrow together (and Katie) decided to check out the restaurant that the group had eaten at the night before... Geoffrey's favourite. It was called "Strofi's" and it was definitely worth it! We ate on the roof (I don't know if an inside option even existed) and had a perfect view of the Acropolis. It was still warm enough to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt AND the food was fabulous too. I've decided that when buying groceries, I'm still going to avoid meat BUT when eating out, I'm not going to worry too much about it. The only option at Strofi's for vegetarians was the Greek salad sooo I opted for trying rooster and eggplant. Delicious!

Day two...

We started at 9am again and headed first to the Southern Slope of the Acropolis where we checked out the Theatre of Dionysus, an ancient road-way, an ancient burial site... a few other ancient things. Then we headed back through the Plaka, past a Roman something (I'll have to ask Geoffrey what it was called)... It was a type of monument anyway and at one point it had been hollowed out and made into a small library (where someone famous lived for a little while -- again, I'll have to check in with Geoffrey for these details. My head only holds so much information).

Part-way through the Plaka (maybe between Plakas?) we past Hadrian's Library! I love libraries...

Then we headed to the Agora (which in Antiquity was kind of like today's version of a downtown core)!

Aaahh! This was another highlight for me. We passed the house of Simon the cobbler (or so they think) Archaologists found shoe nails there which means that a cobbler lived there AND it was located right beside the political centre of the Agora; Plato writes that Socrates often used to philosophise at the house of Simon the cobbler which was located right next to the political centre since he wasn't allowed to philosophise in the Agora (sacred ground!)...

Anyway -- whether or not Socrates existed, Plato wrote about his activities, many of which took place in this Agora, which means that even if Socrates didn't wander around there, Plato certainly did! And me!! I wandered there too. How cool!!!!


After the Agora, we took a break for lunch and then went to check out the National Museum. Busy day! On our way home, however, Geoffrey was robbed on the subway! Gah!!

A few people had headed back early to the hotel but those of us who remained were going to head to one main subway stop and disperse from there (a few to go shopping and a few of us to hike up another large hill with another monument at the top...) ANYWAY. The plan was to hop on and get off in two stops and then we'd be given directions to our destinations at that point. There two were pushy guys (obviously, in hindsight, working together) who boarded the subway right after us and we were all surprised when Geoffrey instructed us to get off at the next stop (the first one) instead of the one we'd originally agreed on. We managed to spread the word to everyone in our group on that subway and we all hopped off.

Apparently a few of us (myself not included) had felt the thieves trying to get into pockets, but they'd been unsuccessful in getting anything from anyone other than Geoffrey who ended up having all the cash he'd been carrying disappear. He looked pretty stressed out (obviously) but kept himself well composed and continued to ensure that each of us knew where we were going, etc. CRAZY!! On the bright-ish side, at least we all know that pushy is not just a Greek thing and we'll all be more careful next time we experience something like that!

Michelle, Rebecca, Katie and I were the only ones interested in hiking up the hill at this point in time so we headed there together and, with the help of a Greek woman who showed us which street led to the hill from our metro station, we found our way to the top! (Lots of stairs and lots of cacti, but not nearly so bad as the Grouse Grind!).

The pictures from that hill aren't quite as good because it was kind of cloudy... Too bad because the hill was WAY higher than the one we went up on the first night!


We got back to our hotel around 8pm and hung out on the roof for a bit. I love that so many buildings in Greece have little roof-top hang outs with fabulous views and cute tables!

I went to bed early and set my alarm for six so I could watch the sunrise over the Acropolis... Unfortunately, it was cloudy in the morning. I did watch the clouds get brighter though! Then headed back to bed for another hour or two of sleep before breakfast and heading out to the van to meet our "Anarchist Bus Driver" and start the final leg of the journey to KEFALONIA!


And now we're here and we've been here for 2.5 days and it's beautiful and perfect and I love it. Will write more on what we've done since our arrival later. Much love!!

Shannon