Athens, Greece

Today we will be in Athens, Greece.

This was very exciting to me.  I had only learned about it in books and saw pictures.  Now Char and I were about to go adventure on foot and see it all for ourselves.

The ship docks in the city of Piraeus.

Didnt know anything about this city.  When the ship docked all we could see was every square inch of land populated by buildings.  As far as you could see, building on top of building except for the very top of some mountains.

I could not get over how it seemed like China to me with how crowded it was. 

 The next surprise was that this city is very much like a NYC except the buildings are not very tall.  A very busy bustling city.

I still cant get over the graffiti that was in Europe.  Try and find a building, wall, or sidewalk that does not have it.  Athens was covered in graffiti.  It was almost like it was some kind of artistic twist to the city because it was just everywhere.  That is soooooo sad to me but we were told there just aren't enough law enforcement.

It was great walking through the city.

I really didnt know where I was going but somehow I led us straight to the train terminal.

Every train was grafitted.

It was crazy.

Once again NO ONE to enforce any kind of tickets to ride.

We seriously could have ridden on every single train we got on in Europe for free but we always tried to figure out at least how to buy a ticket.

It was about a 25 minute ride to Athens.

On the train trip we passed through all of the Olympic areas when Athens held their last Olympics.

Guess what??  All of those buildings and statues were graffittied.

So we get off of the train and walk out of the terminal and it was like we were magically transported to another place in time.  We were in Athens and the streets just looked so cool.  There was this shopping village right there.

Hadrian's Library

built in A.D. 132

Papyrus books were all you could have checked out at this library.

So Char and I are ready to move on and we ask a vendor which direction the Acropolis was.  He just pointed up behind us.  Ok, so we were really embarrassed.   Im sorry but from where we were it was just this tiny little building.

Thats once again not what we were expecting.

I have to think that this is not the first time this man has been asked that same question.

So it was a long walk up a pretty big mountain but it was a cool very local walk.  Later we learned that we came in the back way.  I liked that though.  We walked through neighborhoods and saw kids playing at their schools.

On this walk, we spotted this building and Char got the camera going.  We took tons of pictures of this building from afar figuring that we would eventually get to it.  This was the Parthenon after all.  Well NOT REALLY.  Thats what we thought.  Should have listened better in history class.  We did not even realize that was not the Parthenon until we got up to the Acropolis.  We felt pretty dumb.

We have NO IDEA what this building is!!!

Char and I decided that the Parthenon is in such bad shape and this building looks just like it.  They should just start charging for tickets and tell people thats what it is.  

Beautiful homes and buildings but its almost a claustrophobic feeling of how close everything is.

Loved taking pictures of the country's flags.

This is the outdoor theatre at the acropolis.  It is in use today so most of it has been refurbished and modern technology added.  I guess it is still cool that some of the original is still a part of it today.

Tons of pictures from the Acropolis.

Char hated all the cranes and construction that was going on but at this point none of it will remain standing if they dont do some support work.

This was so amazing to once again be standing right there at the real place.  Not from pictures.  This is truly the coolest trip ever.

The horses heads are stuck here from the roof collapsing.

We walked down the front of the Acropolis to a part in Athens that has some newer neighborhoods.  They were really beautiful, obviously new but kept the architecture to blend in.

The market areas had blocks and blocks of stores.  There were many clothes stores that Char and I could have bought some really different cool clothes but we were pretty tired and not so much in the mood. 

I dont know if I have ever said that about Char and myself.

This was just so nice.  Everyday after being out and exploring we got to come back to this amazing ship and go lay out on the deck.  Get a little nap in and be ready for the night.

You must have the ice sculptures on a cruise!

In the dining room this night the waiters all sang.  It was very cool.

I seriously can not even remember what we did after dinner this night.

The days are all starting to come together.

I have to admit that only after 6 days of not having contact with my family I started to have a little anxiety.  I was trying e-mails but they were not going through.  I went to the desk and asked why the Internet would not work.  The guy said I could just call home.  Right there he just picked up the phone and dialed my home number.  It was a crystal clear connection of course it was only early afternoon at home.  Larson answered and he was surprised and a little confused as to why Mom was on the phone.  I told him to tell everyone hi and that I missed them and then that was it.  I wasnt sure if Larson would even remember to tell Tom that I called.  Apparently he did remember.   As great of a time as I was having I was missing them but more than that just wished they could be with me experiencing this.