Athens

Athens! What a crazy city. It's sometimes hard to believe that Greece is in the European Union - I know I've said this before, but it's true. A lot of Athens is fairly seedy, so it's no wonder that most tourists only spend one night in the city. Which is exactly what we did. As we got off the ferry, we met up with a boy from Perth, Australia, named Hamish. The four of us (Bryce, Kiersten, Hamish and I) toured the city together. We started with the Parthenon, since we all wanted to see it. How cool to be in the middle of thousands of years of history! It's kind of disorienting, though, because the Acropolis and surrounding areas are so full of tourists! I'm surprised none of us got pickpocketed. I was also very surprised at how many ruins were poorly cared for; some of the ruins at the Acropolis were being used as benches by tourists. I guess Greece isn't very wealthy, and there are more tourists than the country can handle. Oh well.

From the Acropolis we wandered the market area. We ate fresh gyro (sooo good) and fresh strawberries. I bought sandals at a little store that sold sandals to John Lennon and Jackie O back in the day. From the market we walked some residential streets to the Olympic Stadium, then to the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, and back to the market for dinner. All in all, a very satisfying visit. I'm not really sure what we would have done if we were in Athens for more than a day, so I'm glad we took our extra day in Santorini instead.

Seats in the Ancient Theater

Corinthian columns (one of the bits of knowledge I remember from Latin class)

The second theater, where they still put on plays

The Parthenon, in the hot Athenian sun, surrounded by American and Canadian tourists

In front of the Parthenon

Next to the south side of the Parthenon

Temple of Zeus from above

Doric Columns

The Caryatids

And finally, Ionic columns.

Jesus (I think) on the inside of a very early Christian Church

Another temple, but I don't remember which. We saw quite a few

My traveling companions next to the temple

Sandals!

Kiersten and me with the sandal maker! His partner finished the sandals on my feet!

Hamish and Bryce

Walking some of the residential area

The temple of Zeus, which was originally bigger than the Parthenon.

Bryce looks super small compared to the temple

A turtle! With legs! Hamish, who is Australian, was so shocked to see turtles with legs! He said they all have flippers where he's from. This might technically be a tortise, but close enough. He was still surprised!

Olympic stadium. Athens was the sight of the original Olympics, and the site of the first modern Olympic games.

Walking through the gardens to the changing of the guard

The pigeons were everyhwere!

The changing of the guard included much silly walking

...and silly shoes

These birds would not leave us alone at dinner! They would come and sit on our bread while we were eating it. Agressive little suckers!

Athenian sunset from the balcony of our hostel. This is not the best part of town.

Look at all the TV antennas! Again, taken from the balcony.