We got up a little later today than yesterdy. We grabbed a banana and a croissant from Evita's kitchen and headed out to the grocery store to get more water. We then headed to the entrance to the Acropolis as that's where the hop on, hop off buses were. We each got a ticket that would last us two days on the bus. The bus offers a 90 minute audio guide tour around Athens as well as the option to get on and off as often as you like (at designated spots).
We started at the Temple of Zeus. More columns and ancient stone - pretty amazing really. We didn't have a guide or anything so we kind of made it up or guessed the best we could as we went along. I had Jeff pose as if he was throwing a lightening bolt, lol. He's a good sport. We then saw Hadrian's arch (a big arch...lol) - he essentially gave a lot of money and wealth to the city (thus became the emperor) and he was worshipped as a "coequal" to Zeus - must've been some guy to be worshipped alongside a god.
We then took the bus past the parliment building and prime minister's home - most bautiful street in Athens. It was lovely! Bautiful upscale homes (apartment buildings) and trees, gardens. We'll go back tomorrow.
We got off at the Panathenaic Stadium (over 2500 years old but renovated in 1869) where the first modern day Olympics were held numerous times since 1896, most recently for 2004 summer Olympics. It was big!! I can't imagine how many people it could hold. Let me Google it - wikipedia says it could initially hold 80,000 people but now can hold 45,000 - I wonder why the decline?
We then took the bus to Monastiraki square as Jeff wanted to have gyros from the 'best/oldest place in town' - they were good but to me didn't taste any different than anywhere else. We wandered through the tourist area that had lots of shops flogging their wares. We still need a magnet for our collection. I guess that will be tonight or tomorrow's goal!
While passing a shop, I said hello in Greek ("yasius") and the shop girl continued on in Greek. I laughed and said I spoke English. She was so impressed, shaking my hand and saying I had the tounge for the language. I said a couple of other things and she waved me off laughing, impressed. Perhaps I should be picking up a second language... I doubt it will be Greek. Better return to my Spanish.
We stopped at the Hardrock Cafe (they're everywhere!) for a drink - Jeff had a beer and I had a delicious fruit smoothie. The air conditioning was glorious. We were able to cool down and use the restroom before continuing on.
We walked (unknowingly) to the area of Ancient Agora - essentially ancient Athens below the Acropolis (ancient hill) and decided to wander through. It was so hot so we kept to the shade as much as possible. The ruins were neat, if not nearly indecipherable... It's challenging to see rock and stone that is 2000+ years old and try to conceptualize what it might have looked like. Eventually it all starts looking the same, but we could appreciate how old it was and the history attached. We saw a church (that in the grand scheme of things was quite young) that had original wall paintings. We also saw a temple that is the best preserved in Athens (especially compared to the Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus) - most columns were in tact as well as the roof. It was neat.
One of the things we've noticed while touring through ancient sites are the number of 'security' guards (actually, whistle blowers, literally) that have to tell people not to touch anything. Today we saw some people place a minion toy on an ancient stone ledge thing and boy did they get told off! How hard is it, people?? Don't touch the ancient stuff! Every time we heard a whistle blow we knew someone had touched something, lol.
We were close to home so walked back, picked up some more water, as well as juice and chocolate milk (I hadn't had milk in nearly 2 weeks - it was good!).
We got back about 3:30pm. We showered and laid down for a bit. It was siesta time afterall. Jeff fell asleep despite himself (he said he wan't tired and then started snoring). I really do believe the heat and walking takes a toll on us.
We left for dinner around 6:30pm. We didn't know where to go and ended up at a restaurant I had seen on our Athens map. The food sounded delicious but it was also crazy expensive (I should have known). We ordered appetizers and left (and it was still stupid expensive). We ended up getting gyros on the way back to our place. I don't even know how many gyros we've had at this point. It sure is a lot. It's been such an easy and cheap default meal.
We sat outside for a bit on a pedestrian road as there were a ton of vendors out selling their products (mostly jewelry and art) and an African band playing the drums. It was quite the scene - the two of us eating gyros, observing the Parthenon all lit up beautifully, listening to an African band and people watching (with little English heard). Jeff had a bit of a bellyache so we headed back to our place for about 9pm.
Tomorrow is the last day of our trip. We have a couple of ideas for things to do which we're looking forward to - seeing the change of guard (special on Sundays) at parliment, and taking the athens bus tour with audio guide. We also have to find our trip magnet! And possibly eat more gelato... lol.
For now, it's R&R before bed (another hot night I think, urgh and the dog down the road won't stop barking!). Can't wait to get home to my own home and my own bed.
Adio.
Amanda xo
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