Arvi ja Leah aeg reisimiseks: Athens

a view from our ferry out to one of the islands

Yay a big ferry ride! No spew boy for me. A 5-hour trip from Mykonos to Athens and then into the hustle of real Greece. None of this holiday – relaxed - quad bike riding - island living that we’ve been enjoying the last 11 days.

location of our picnic

little museum in the airport

We had beautiful weather on the islands around a constant 26 degrees (perfect weather to build our tans) and we could cool down with the sea breeze. But not in Athens. 34 degrees awaited us at the port and stayed hot throughout the first of our hot sticky nights. Along with the shitty air-con, our hostel room mates had a 5am wake up the first night and the second night our new roomies had a 3am wake up. Ahh hostels again.

steaming hot football pitch

So Athens held the first Olympic games and still has ruins everywhere and standing structures 1000’s of years old. The first official Olympic games was held in the Panathenaic Stadium, which is still open to the public today. It is made entirely of marble, even the seats! Walking through the shopping and restaurant streets around where we stayed we saw so many authentic Greek nifties and lots of rude tourist t-shirts. We were shown lots and lots of restaurant menus (not as bad and being nearly smacked by them like in Lisbon). Our trick is to hold your stomach and pretend you’re already full as you walk by.

old stuff near the acropolis

Leah and some old runes

Arch of Hadrian

whats left of the Temple of Olympian Zeus

Panathenaic Stadium

After a picnic in a nearby park we came accross a little pond full of turtles, maybe 100! Heaps of them! They were just swimming around or sun baking on the rocks in the middle of the pond. Leah fed them some leftover pear and we watched them race for each little piece.