Athens

It's all Greek to me... 

which should really mean "it's some of the coolest stuff in the world!"

We are at the Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background.

Athens was our last stop in our 2013 European Tour.
This turned out to be a vacation of a life-time!

We flew from Santorini to the Athens airport and arrived in the late evening. We got on a train to take us into the city. I used the trusty old map-and-compass technique, yet again, to find our hotel. Honestly, Athens was a little scary at night, but I just chalked that up to it being a new place, and me being worried that I didn't know exactly where I was going or what to expect. Plus, it seems to always be a little more worrisome when you arrive in a new country/city at night. The next day, however, we found out that my initial nervousness was totally valid :)

Athens can be a rough city. I mean a really rough city. Don't get me wrong. We saw some of the most amazing things there, but in many ways, the city is obviously in bad shape. So we just kept our guards up, didn't put ourselves at risk and had a truly amazing time!

We took the subway to the Acropolis stop, and began our hike up the Hellenic hill. (Sorry, I love alliterations)

I had to touch everything.

The Theater Dionysus

Jenni is patiently waiting for the next show to start... It might be a while :)

There is the Parthenon. Before, we had only seen it in history books!

The old temple of Athena

The Parthenon

Some "extra" pieces :)

It was so hot that day!

The city spreads as far as the eye can see. It looks like this in all directions from the Acropolis.

Jenni has a slight obsession with panoramic shots and pictures of flags... so she really loves this picture :)

Steep steps

I'm baking in the sun.

Talk about beauty... and the Acropolis doesn't look too bad either ;)

I'm tired, but it was worth it!

Too cute!

We stopped for dinner....we had worked up quite an appetite!

Jenni was so excited to try genuine Greek baklava!  She was equally proud to declare that her dad's baklava was superior.  She says it was close, but she swears his pistachio with blood orange rind is the best ever.  As in she will debate you about this and tell you all about how his team kicked butt at the iron chef competition where blood orange was the secret ingredient and he made the most amazing and  awesome baklava ever.  Here's to you Pete!  (Caption by Jenni.) 

Here's an example of how rough the city can be.... people live there.

The next day we traveled through the ruins near the Acropolis.

What a cutie ;)

Anyone care to translate this for me?

Walking into a museum

THIS IS SPARTA/AWESOME!!!!

Time to cool down again

The Temple of Zeus with the Acropolis in the background :)

Epic

Here is a random picture of a wasp I saw eating a dragonfly :)

We made it to Panathenaic Stadium!

Oh yeah

You got tickets.....

It was fun goofing off at the stadium. This stadium hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896.

This may seem random, but this guy was such a jerk that I had to put him in the blog.

I don't know his name, but I think he looks like a "Damien"

He works for Aeroflot and has zero customer service skills.

If you see "Damien", kick him in the liver for me. Thanks :)

Here is an example of the graffiti problem. It's like this all over Athens.

Some side notes: In 2004 Athens hosted the Summer Olympic Games, and dumped tons of money into getting the city ready and building facilities for all the events. As we walked through, we saw the "ruins" of the 2004 Olympics. They don't maintain hardly any of the facilities anymore. Many of them are covered in graffiti, overgrown with vegetation and littered with garbage. We even saw some graffiti on the actual ancient ruins in some places. Athens is a rough and beautiful place. We hope they can get back on their feet soon, but it wasn't looking too good.

Random Story Time with Johnny: We were walking down the street to our hotel one afternoon when a man suddenly stopped his car in the street. There was no space for the cars behind him to drive around him, so they had to stop too. The man casually got out of his car and strolled into a convenience store. There was a city bus directly behind his car honking loudly along with about 12 other cars behind the bus. The man bought one pack of cigarettes, walked outside the store, and lit one cigarette before getting back into his car and driving off. I found this to be totally crazy! He had absolutely no respect for the people around him, and I think this may be symbolic with the way many young people in Athens think.

Random Story Time with Johnny: One day we were walking through town when I guy yells to me, "Wow! You look like a Spartan. You must be Greek." (Flattery is ok, but fake flattery is not) I knew he just wanted to sell me some junk, so I looked at him and replied, "If you really thought I was Greek, you would have spoken to me in Greek, not English." He smiled, but couldn't think of anything else to say, so we kept walking.

So during the summer of 2013 we hit 7 European countries in a row. (That's counting the Vatican, too.) We really outdid ourselves this time.

This trip was educational, inspiring, mesmerizing, kinda scary at times, and an amazing experience. We now understand how wanderlust actually feels. I know I've said it already, but I just can't think of another way to put it. This was the trip of a lifetime, and it has changed us. We learned so much, and we learned that we have a lot more to learn.

I'm sorry it took me a year and a half to finish this. I would say that I will be better next time, but I've got places to go and people to see :)

"A little step may be the beginning of a great journey"

-Johnny